Joni The lyrical life of Joni Mitchell

Selina Alko

Book - 2020

"Joni Mitchell painted with words. Sitting at her piano or strumming the guitar, she turned the words into songs. The songs were like brushstrokes on a canvas, saying things that were not only happy or sad but true. But before composing more than two hundred songs, Joni was a young girl from a town on the Canadian prairie, where she learned to love dancing, painting, birdsong, and piano. As she grew up into an artist, Joni took her strong feelings--feelings of love and frustration, and the turbulence that came with being a young woman--and wrote them into vivid songs."--Amazon.

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Subjects
Genres
Biographies
Picture books
Published
New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers [2020]
Language
English
Main Author
Selina Alko (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 29 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9780062671295
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Joni Mitchell painted with words, begins Alko's intensely composed and illustrated picture-book biography. Colors burst across each page, with layers of collage-work emphasizing the richness of Mitchell's influences and imagination, song lyrics drifting in ribbons or lying precisely inside paisley tear-drop speech bubbles. We follow Mitchell from her Canadian childhood, through her early interest in visual art, to folk-festival days, Greenwich Village cafés, and California at the height of her career, but the book doesn't stop there. Instead, Alko shows how Mitchell continued experimenting with music beyond her heyday, morphing to take in jazz influences and create what pleased her. The emphasis on Mitchell's ability to be open to myriad influences and adjust her creativity will speak to readers just starting their own exploration of artistic expression. The author also carefully highlights the origins of Mitchell's most recognizable songs, like Big Yellow Taxi, which stemmed from her noticing the pollution around her, or her lightly alluded-to romantic disappointments that gave rise to the album Blue. The final pages picture a Chagall-like illustration of Mitchell taking flight into an indigo sky, strumming a guitar, the happiness of artistic expression clear and joyful. Young people will be inspired to explore Mitchell's discography listed in the back matter and, like Alko, to appreciate the influential singer.--Karen Cruze Copyright 2019 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This loose biography of the legendary singer-songwriter centers on Mitchell's feelings while tying popular songs ("Chelsea Morning," "Woodstock") to biographical moments. This emphasis, rendered in affirmational language--"hearing all these natural feelings sung out loud helped people feel understood"--focuses on the sense of Mitchell's music as much as the facts of her life and artistry. Alko follows Mitchell's life from her childhood in small-town Canada (she felt "like an upside-down bird on a wire") to her bout with polio ("she wished she could kick and scream") and later relationships ("she fell in and out of love and cried all the time"). Portrayals of her professional life also focus on feel (regarding negative reactions to her album Mingus, "Joni didn't care."). Layered mixed-media collages featuring cut paper, found images, and colorful smears of paint effectively evoke the richly rendered emotional landscapes of Mitchell's songwriting. An author's note, discography, and bibliography conclude. Ages 4--8. (Feb.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 3--Canadian author-illustrator Alko offers an homage to fellow countrywoman Joni Mitchell. This portrait delves into the experiences that influenced her career, spotlighting the heartfelt, poetic lyrics that spoke to and defined a generation. Even today, long after she first gained a devoted international following in the 1960s and 1970s, Mitchell's albums--showcasing her impressive vocal range, quirky melodies, and driving piano and guitar riffs--still appeal to nostalgic listeners. This is an admiring, fact-filled, though not entirely successful book. The author aims for lyricism but sometimes the descriptions seem vague. The targeted audience is far removed from Mitchell's heyday. Therefore, young readers will likely not have heard her songs or even heard of her. Some may believe the appeal of Mitchell's music to young children is questionable except, perhaps, for bouncy classics like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Chelsea Morning." Regrettable omissions are QR codes and/or links in the back matter to Mitchell's tunes, though a discography is included. Alko employs collage, acrylics, found objects, and wildflowers to create the colorful illustrations, which are are appealing and inventive. Numerous snippets of Mitchell's lyrics playfully drift through the pages. VERDICT Nonessential. Recommended for school and large public collections. Use in units on music appreciation and women recording artists.--Carol Goldman, formerly at Queens Library, NY

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

This biographical introduction to iconic songwriter Joni Mitchell traces the creative influences in her life.Growing up on the Canadian prairie, Mitchell was a "restless girl" who "danced in wide-open spaces," learned bird calls from her mother, painted on her bedroom wall, composed melodies on the piano, and often felt "like an upside-down bird on a wire." Encouraged by a teacher in junior high school to write poetry, Mitchell bought a guitar, briefly attended art school in Calgary, started composing music and singing in Toronto, suffered an unhappy marriage, performed in Greenwich Village with contemporary folk singers, and eventually became a "very famous singer." Influenced by the world around and within her, Mitchell "painted with words," turning her words and feelings into songs that poignantly captured her time's sadness, beauty, love, hope, and yearning for freedom, and Alko's poetic text and vibrant illustrations effectively convey this. Mixing media that include acrylic paint, found objects, and wildflowers, the double-page spreads (reminiscent of Chagall's dreamlike paintings) reveal an intense, impassioned Mitchell in various venues as she moves through the stages of her life, singing her sorrow and painting her joy, appropriately surrounded by a kaleidoscope of exuberant swirling colors, images, and lyrics from her best-known songs.An inspired and creative ode to the inimitable Joni Mitchell. (author's note, discography, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.