The Jazz Fly

From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 1-When a drummer fly gets lost on his way to a gig, he tries to get directions from a frog, a pig, a donkey, and a dog, but none of them speaks his language. He finally finds his way to the club and all is well until the Queen Bee demands "-a new BEAT/or this band is OUT!" The fly is stymied until he remembers the retorts of the animals he heard on his way and uses those noises to create a whole new sound that makes the band famous. The rhyming text includes scat refrains like "ZA-baza, BOO-zaba, ZEE-zah RO-ni" that just beg to be read aloud. The unique illustrations, gray-toned pictures with contrasting hints of pastel colors, were accomplished by scanning pencil sketches into a Macintosh computer and then re-creating them with Adobe Illustrator. One spread features the gray figures of the bassist and saxophonist spotlighted in green and pink, respectively. The text itself is cleverly designed. Words representing sounds are portrayed as if they are coming right out of the animals' mouths in colored fonts. Together the illustrations and book design give the whole enterprise the feel of jazz, even without musical accompaniment. The accompanying CD is delightful. Gollub narrates with a jazzy beat, and the danceable music perfectly accentuates the story. Children will love hearing this book read aloud and imitating the animal sounds and other refrains. A natural for storytimes.Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
A fly gets lost on his way to a performance, so he asks several animals how to get to town: "ZA-baza, BOO-zaba, ZEE-zah RO-ni?" he asks. The frog, the hog, and the donkey don't understand Jazz Fly, but, fortunately, the dog does. Arriving at the club, Jazz Fly sits down at his drums and begins to play, incorporating the animal sounds into his music to great audience response. The story is slight but bouncy, especially as it's told by the author on the accompanying audie CD, with the narration heightened by the music of a jazz quartet. The illustrations are mostly black, white, and gray, with splashes of color to accentuate the jazzy style. Susan Dove Lempke
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Card catalog description
While seeking directions to town, a fly picks up the rhythm of the answers he gets from a frog, a hog, a donkey, and a dog, and then uses these sounds to jazz up his band's music.


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PreS-Gr 1-When a drummer fly gets lost on his way to a gig, he tries to get directions from a frog, a pig, a donkey, and a dog, but none of them speaks his language. He finally finds his way to the club and all is well until the Queen Bee demands "-a new BEAT/or this band is OUT!" The fly is stymied until he remembers the retorts of the animals he heard on his way and uses those noises to create a whole new sound that makes the band famous. The rhyming text includes scat refrains like "ZA-baza, BOO-zaba, ZEE-zah RO-ni" that just beg to be read aloud. The unique illustrations, gray-toned pictures with contrasting hints of pastel colors, were accomplished by scanning pencil sketches into a Macintosh computer and then re-creating them with Adobe Illustrator. One spread features the gray figures of the bassist and saxophonist spotlighted in green and pink, respectively. The text itself is cleverly designed. Words representing sounds are portrayed as if they are coming right out of the animals' mouths in colored fonts. Together the illustrations and book design give the whole enterprise the feel of jazz, even without musical accompaniment. The accompanying CD is delightful. Gollub narrates with a jazzy beat, and the danceable music perfectly accentuates the story. Children will love hearing this book read aloud and imitating the animal sounds and other refrains. A natural for storytimes.-Tim Wadham, Maricopa County Library District, Phoenix, AZ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.


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