The Music in George's Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue by S. Slade

Abstract

Slade, Suzanne. The Music in George's Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue. Calkins Creek, 2016.

This biography gives Gershwin’s early history and then focuses on how he came to write Rhapsody in Blue, beginning with a train ride where  the “train noises created new melodies in his head.”

This is a very blue book.  The whole palette is dark blue, purple and black, with sepia and light brown backgrounds and highlights. The images are surreal.  One shows Gershwin reaching out of a bus window to grab a note floating in the air.  Elongated keyboards twist and wave their way through collections of overlapping images.  Parts of pictures are disproportionate. Apart from the colour and the images, the most striking thing is the shape of the text.  On every page some words are much larger, in different fonts and different shades of blue.  The text and the images are meant to reflect the wild, unpredictable and jazzy nature of Gershwin’s music.

The music message of this book is that composers and musicians can find music anywhere and that great compositions often break the rules.

While this is a picture book, the text includes some difficult words like “rhapsody” and “syncopated”, which could be read and understood by children in upper elementary and junior high school, but they might pose a challenge for younger children. 

Highly Recommended:  3 stars out of 4
Reviewer: Sean Borle

Sean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.