Dizzy

Written by Jonah Winter

Narrated by Kevin R. Free

An acclaimed biographer for children, Jonah Winter brings historical figures to life for young listeners. Here he turns his talents to jazz legend John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie. Born into poverty and the victim of vicious parental abuses, Dizzy received a trumpet one day and it changed his life forever. Dizzy follows Gillespie's journey from rural South Carolina to New York City-straight into the burgeoning jazz scene he soon immersed himself in. "... a delightful story that introduces readers to an influential and unique American musician."-School Library Journal, starred review

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 15, 2008
• ISBN: 9781440799006

Jonah Winter

Jonah Winter is the award-winning author of more than 25 non-fiction picture books including the New York Times Best Illustrated Books Diego and Here Comes the Garbage Barge!, and the highly acclaimed Frida and Dizzy. Winter has been listening to Jelly Roll Morton's music since he was a young boy.

Reviews for Dizzy

[ginger_malone-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazing book, that is sure to draw kids in with it's amazing illustrations. There are some themes in this book that might upset very young readers. I would use to to teach about onomatopoeia.

[kfbruck · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book to have because it appeals to the children interested in music and it’s great to have to read to children during Black History month. Although I would recommend this to various ages I would also say that the older the better because of the talk of child abuse. Besides that however, the book is very fun, interesting, and colorful. This book was written beautifully and you will definitely learn more about Dizzy through reading it.

[sunnyburke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not only is this an exceptional story but it beautifully illustrated as well! I knew who Dizzy Gillespie was but I did not knew very much abotu how he came to be such an amazing jazz musician. Ths is a tender story abotu a little boy who had so much anger inside him from being picked on to being abused by his father. When he found his trumper, he also found a better release for his pent up anger. This story really lets the reader know just how Dizzy got his name and how he was the founding father of a style of jazz that many people didn't understand at first.

[kmacneill_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a picture book biography about Dizzy Gillespie from his poor, abusive childhood filled with rage and his discovery of the trumpet which then led him to create a new type of jazz, bebop. The language in this book is creative and the author uses colorful fonts to emphasize expressive words.

[shelf3employed · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dizzy is a picture book biography, targeted at older readers. It simultaneously chronicles the life of Dizzy Gillespie and the birth of the new form of jazz that Dizzy helped to invent, bebop. I have mixed feelings about the book.The prose is wonderful and evokes the transition of jazz music from swing to bebop, switching cadences and syntaxes throughout the story."He was always mad. You see, his dadwas always beating on HIMand there was nothing he could dobut try to be toughand try not to cry."and then later"For the boy with the hornfueled with a FIREthat burned with every whooping,JAZZ was like a fire extinguisher. It was c o o o o o o o o l.For the boy with the horn, stuckinside a Podunk townin the Deep South, where white folks put you down,JAZZ was also like a ticketon a train to better days.So he boarded that train and moved up northto a place they call Philly.Right off the bat,he got a job in a jazz bandand started acting silly."Winter tells Dizzy's story beginning with a difficult childhood filled with rage, progressing to his musical awakening through the trumpet and the early days of jazz, and ending with his accomplishments as the confident and ebullient creator and master of the bebop jazz sound.I may be of a minority opinion here, but I think that the illustrations fall short of capturing the scope of Dizzy Gillespie's life. Qualls definitely captures the mood of Dizzy's early life, with its poverty and rage. His acrylic and pencil illustrations with their muted blues, reds, and purples, also accurately capture the hot/cool jazz scene. What I find missing is the exuberance and joy of Dizzy's fun-loving spirit. In fact, only one illustration in the entire book features Dizzy with even the hint of a smile. Winter's biography depicts a Dizzy Gillespie that was known as much for his clowning around as for his revolutionary style of jazz. Qualls' artwork misses that note.