After reading thousands of illustrated books I just realized something about the genre. You do not need to read the entire book in one sitting. Granted, being able to read the book in its entirety is part of the appeal of an illustrated book. They tell a story in a large, oversized format that’s also loaded with illustrations. However, some illustrated books must be broken up into segments, nay, much like their thicker cousins, they too require chapters. Song For Jimi is the first illustrated book that has made us realize that when done properly, this format can be as much as a coffee table book, a multi-day read-aloud story to elementary school students and so much more.
The first time I read Song For Jimi I didn’t get it. Yikes, this is a long illustrated book, I thought. The illustrations in the book did grab my attention from the very first moment. They’re large, come at readers from a variety of angles and perspectives and each piece of artwork only uses a handful of colors. This fact affords the disparate colors the chance to scream as loud as Hendrix’s guitar.
The text in Song For Jimi is presented as a song, specifically in the form of an outro, interlude, and five verses. It’s the five verses that carry the weight of the book. Each page has the lyrics, or poetry, laid out on the outermost edges of them. The four to six lines of text in each block, repeated three times a page unmistakably categorize the book as poetry.
As a reader, I do not like poetry. However, as a music fan, I love well-crafted songs with intelligent lyrics. This is where I get on my soapbox and complain about the state of music today, the hokum of their content, and the noticeable lack of guitars. I am a fan of Jimi Hendrix. I also didn’t discover his music until college, which for this metalhead was very surprising in hindsight.
Now, I’m a fifth-grade teacher. Sometimes I read poetry to my classes and they’re able to follow the stories, even those that take more than two weeks. Now that I see rhyming text that’s written this way I see how to read it to kids and how much they can enjoy it. The class that I’m reading our long-form poetry book to now hangs on each short chapter and is able to recall exactly where I stopped reading.
Song For Jimi demands to be read when you’re in a patient mood. Read it like a poem, hang on every period, pause for dramatic effect if you want to and make those words rhyme, just not too much. It tells the story of Johnny Allen, his family, early desires, and more. Casual fans of Hendrix will learn more than a few facts about his all too short life. I didn’t know that he was asked to leave previous groups because his guitar playing quickly became the star of any show. It was because of this that he realized that he had to be the singer, which led him to Europe where his career really took off.
If you simply glance at Song For Jimi without knowing how and why the book is arranged like that it might miss the mark. Kind of like the titular band that he helmed, the book is an experience. Kids aged seven and up will hold on to every stanza, ask questions and feel the emotions that the words are bringing. Rock parents will love the book even more. They are the ones who’ll use the book as one for the coffee table, back of the toilet, or office reading whilst they listen to Dolly Dagger. It also gives those younger readers who are enjoying the story the reason that they need to pull up Purple Haze or Manic Depression.
Song For Jimi is one that’s in our forever library. It’ll be at home in any classroom and can provide numerous talking points about race, music, the ’60s, art, growing up, death, and more. The content is on level for ages seven and up, plus the art, as well as, the pop-culture topic of Jimi Hendrix will give the book legs far north of that age.
Song For Jimi The Story of Guitar Legend Jimi Hendrix is by Charles R. Smith Jr. with art by Edel Rodrguez and available on Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House.
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