Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World

by Marilyn Nelson

Book Overview

In the 1940s, as the world was at war, a remarkable jazz band performed on the American home front. This all-female band, originating from a boarding school in the heart of Mississippi, found its way... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803731876
• ISBN13: 9780803731875
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Dial Books
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 10.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Marilyn Nelson and Jerry Pinkney have the rhythm down perfectly in this one and you certainly won't

A tenor sax rested on its stand and a trombone quietly lay in its case in a pawnshop. The door to the shop was closed and the instruments began to talk of their "glory years on the road with an all-girl band." They all began to swing and sway in remembrance of a time and a band long since forgotten by most. Decades earlier there was a time when men had gone off to war and jazz musicians were needed. The Piney Woods Country Life School, in Piney Woods Mississippi was founded by Laurence Jones in 1909. Eighteen years later he gathered together some of the girls from the school to form a jazz band. They were predominantly African American, but there were others. There was a "Chinese Saxophonist, a Hawaiian trumpeter, and a Mexican clarinetist." They represented the world as so became known as the "International Sweethearts of Rhythm." They soon began touring, but later broke from the school. They weren't being "paid a fair wage." They knew how to swing and entrance an audience. They were some of the best musicians the states had to offer. They were hot! It Don't Mean A Thing Pauline Braddy On Drums On some tunes, she'd lash may bass home like a jockey; On some all she did was high-hat rickle the beat, Always greacefully making the transitions, Watching the music and the dancers' feet. The jitterbug was one way people forgot The rapidly spreading prairie fires of war. Man, the house would bounce when her licks were hot! We gave those people what they were dancing for. (Marilyn Nelson) Before I read the book, I read the author and illustrator notes in the back of the book. Both were stunning and you won't hear any spoilers here. The next thing I did was hit the internet and found several mesmerizing clips of these young women, including one in which we could hear Braddy solo. The book? I was enthralled by the way the poetry and the illustrations combined to tell the story of the times and the "International Sweethearts of Rhythm." Marilyn Nelson and Jerry Pinkney have the rhythm down perfectly in this one and you certainly won't regret or forget the read!

Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children

The late 1930s saw the formation of a swing-music band comprised of female students attending the Piney Woods Country Life School in Mississippi for low-income and orphaned African American students. Originally founded to raise money for the school, this big band had such talent and attracted so much attention that it toured all over the country and played to record-breaking crowds in such notable venues as the Howard Theatre, the Apollo Theatre, and the Savoy Ballroom. The International Sweethearts of Rhythm stood out for their ability to be taken seriously as musicians in the male-dominated world of jazz. The departure of many male musicians to serve in World War II helped this all-female band gain a foothold in the American music scene, but they continued to tour and record songs even after the war ended. The Sweethearts also stood out for their courage to defy the Southern Jim Crow laws and play as a racially-integrated band, which meant avoiding arrest by having the white members of the band wear wigs and dark makeup. Rather than report these interesting events as a detailed narrative, Marilyn Nelson has chosen to communicate the band's story as a set of rhythmic poems written in the voices of the instruments. Jerry Pinkney has added further to the richness of the book with collages of different shapes of textured papers, music sheets, maps, and flowers superimposed on his dynamic sketches. The meticulous research that both Nelson and Pinkney conducted shines through clearly to make this volume a uniquely expressive work of historical fiction.