Alyson Beecher over at Kid Lit Frenzy hosts a Non-fiction Picture Book Challenge and has a roundup every Wednesday. I love the encouragement to explore more non-fiction.
This week I finally got to read The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra by Chris Raschka. Wow! Sun Ra, or Herman Poole Blount as he was named at birth, was a very interesting individual. This picture book biography is a great blending of music, art, and facts about an imaginative and creative man. I was glad to find some recordings of his music online. Jazz was inventive and left a lot of room for experimentation. Sun Ra was all over that. Listen and observe in the trailer below.
I was happy to find this great article/author interview over at the Smithsonian website. I'm looking forward to sharing this bright and interesting biography with students and the art teacher.
Wow! Love seeing the trailer with this. I so love Raschka's illustrations! I need to find this title!
ReplyDeleteIt would be such a great mentor text for a project. My class studied jazz a few years ago, and the students really loved it, despite their own popular tastes. It opened up a whole world most didn't know about. I need to get the book & share with teachers and students! Thanks, Crystal!
ReplyDeleteThis book was definitely different due to the subject, but Raschka did a really nice job with it! I liked listening to some of the music as I read the book!
ReplyDeleteI just checked our online library database - we still don't have a copy of this one yet. :( Woe is me.
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