Review by Booklist Review
A little girl, a big instrument, and plenty of determination as she grows to meet musical challenges are portrayed through a stellar combination of foot-stomping prose and bold illustrations in this picture-book biography of rock-and-roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Depicting the icon in dresses of pastels and lace, puffy shouldered, with her guitar's round contours set against backgrounds of rounded arcades and scallops, Coretta Scott King Honoree Gregory visually emphasizes the fact that Tharpe's accomplishments were as a female forebear to a musical genre typically associated with men. Yet this child growing up in the early part of the twentieth century with "Music in your air, / in your hair, / in your bones . . ." emerged as an inspiration to some of the most iconic early rock sensations--Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Johnny Cash. Bolden keeps the music foremost in readers' minds as she tracks Tharpe's life spent singing in fields, churches, and concert halls, a chorus of "Rock, Rosetta, rock! Roll, Rosetta, roll!" following her. A time line and author's notes fill out the story for curious and inspired older readers, who might even be driven to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, where Tharpe is enshrined as an "Early Influence." Terrific for all collections that want to encourage the musically inclined and highlight innovative pioneers.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Music reverberates throughout this striking biographical tribute to rock and roll trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915--1973). Starting as a "pint-size sensation in tiny/ Cotton Plant, Arkansas," Tharpe is known for having "music in your air,/ in your hair,/ in your bones,/ wiggling your toes." Traveling to Chicago with her mother, she accompanies Mama's preaching in churches, at revivals, and on street corners, until, "all grown," she "gifted Gospel music big-time/ to people all over the place," interweaving the form with "cousin Boogie-Woogie,/ Cousin Jazz,/ Cousin Swing,/ Cousin the big, bad Blues." As she performs the world over, her style introduces a sound that saw "lots of younger cats--some future legends--/ ... Diggin' your licks./ Coppin' your style." Bolden uses alliteration, assonance, repetition, and rhythm to create an irresistibly musical text that effectively communicates the feel of Tharpe's music. Christie's lively illustrations render elongated forms with exaggerated expressions against color-block backgrounds, capturing the physicality of Tharpe's performance style and the intensity of her sound. A timeline and author's note follow. Ages 4--8. (Feb.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1--4--Rosetta Tharpe was an American singer and guitarist who rose up in gospel music and broke into the mainstream of American music in the 1930s and 1940s. She influenced many well-known musicians, including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, and Aretha Franklin. Told in free verse, this picture book biography chronicles her life, from her upbringing in rural Cotton Plant, AK, to accompanying her preacher mother to Chicago, to making a life for herself in New York City. She sang in churches and nightclubs, including the Cotton Club and the Apollo in Harlem. Christie's vibrant illustrations bring the story to life with movement and punch, matching Tharpe's personality. A time line in the back matter further fleshes out her personal life and career. VERDICT A fresh and female addition to the music legend canon, just in time for Black History Month displays. Purchase where picture book biographies, especially those about musicians/rock history, circulate well.--Jennifer Noonan
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Review by Horn Book Review
Rosetta Tharpe's (1915-1973) music would influence some of the biggest stars of the twentieth century -- from Chuck Berry and Little Richard to Johnny Cash and Aretha Franklin -- and change the sound of American music forever. In a picture-book biography that takes Tharpe from childhood in Cotton Plant, Arkansas ("Little girl. Big guitar"), through her adult career, Bolden's dynamic second-person text puts readers in Tharpe's shoes. In tracing her musical successes, readers see her intermingling of musical genres ("mixing it up with Gospel's Cousin Boogie-Woogie, Cousin Jazz, Cousin Swing, Cousin the big, bad Blues") and with it the origin of rock and roll. Bolden describes Tharpe the performer as "bold, audacious -- in a word, bodacious, whatever the song." Christie's acryla gouache paintings use bold contrasting colors to show Tharpe as the center of attention as well as the center of the action: singing, praying, duckwalking, and always with fingers flying on the guitar strings. He contrasts crisp angular lines (of industrial modernity -- trains, spotlights, skylines) with elegant curves (of the guitar's body, of human figures). A detailed timeline, a lengthy author's note, and brief source notes round out this impressive offering about an often-overlooked figure in American music. Pair with Barlow's Little Rosetta and Her Talking Guitar (rev. 1/23). (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From Cotton Plant, Arkansas, to the Cotton Club and beyond, a tribute to rock and roll's founding godmother. Pairing hot licks of free verse with hip-shaking images of a charismatic performer pouring out her heart, occasional collaborators Bolden and Christie take Sister Rosetta Tharpe ("Little girl. / Big guitar") from local church services to international stardom--deftly capturing echoes of the way she united a "rhythm-bound Gospel sound" with "beats from Gospel's / Cousin Boogie-Woogie, / Cousin Jazz, / Cousin Swing, / Cousin the big, bad Blues" and changed popular music. Though Elvis joins young Chuck Berry and Little Richard in one scene as stand-ins for the many musicians she influenced with her "fiery-fierce-feisty picking and plucking," figures in the illustrations are predominantly dark-skinned. Christie's vibrant paintings pulse with energy, perfectly conveying Tharpe's commanding musical presence. A closing note and timeline fill in the details of her extravagant life and career (including mention of her multiple marriages and affairs with men and women both) from birth to scandalously tardy induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A profile as bold and vivacious as the singer herself. (notes) (Picture-book biography. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
