Jazz Baby

Review
By School Library Journal

Energetic, ethnically diverse children cavort through this bouncy celebration of rhythm and music, set to the lively beat of a patty-cake rhyme, beginning with the words ‘Jazz, baby, jazz baby.’ Each spread celebrates an aspect of jazz — trumpet, dance, drums, bass, piano — and the illustrations burst off the full-bleed pages. Reminiscent of pastel chalk, but rendered digitally, the art depicts round-faced, slightly stylized youngsters playing the instruments or dancing against a free-form background of rainbow colors and notes. In the satisfying conclusion, the children rest sleepily against one another at the end of their romp. Team this book with Lloyd Moss’s Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin (S&S, 1995), Thatcher Hurd’s Mama Don’t Allow (HarperCollins, 1984), and Elizabeth Nygaard’s Snake Alley Band (Doubleday, 1998) for a lively celebration that toddlers will dance for.