All characters appear White.īrooks’s gloriously universal celebration of African-American childhood here receives a respectful and joyous treatment from one of the pre-eminent illustrators of the same. Lerner writes very affecting scenes that will resonate with some readers and provide insight for others, shedding powerful light on boys’ body image struggles. The diary feel adds to readers’ understanding of Will. Peppered throughout are balls of black scribbles representing Will’s anxiety, fears, and the anger he directs at himself. The black-and-white illustrations mostly depict Markus Will’s crush, Jules, a skinny girl and a prickly, monsterlike version of how Will sees himself. The setup makes for an effective portrayal of Will’s painful mental battles. Lerner uses the format to great effect, as the staccato lines of broken verse are well matched to Will’s honest, disjointed inner thoughts. It’s Markus, his kind, cool skateboarder friend, who helps Will when he eventually breaks and who is there as he works on piecing himself back together. Three years later, shame-filled Will is eating less and less. It’s the first time the word fat is hurled at him as an insult, the first time he understands that the rest of the world sees something wrong with his body. Lerner’s illustrated verse novel opens on Will’s fourth grade year. Will Chambers wrestles with fat stigma, self-loathing, disordered eating, and the ultimate desire to be accepted. Put this on the shelf next to Chris Raschka's Charlie Parker Played Be-Bop (1992) and see if anyone can sit still when the book is read aloud. Christopher Myers sets his scenes to match the streets, fire escapes, jazz clubs, and kitchens of Harlem, and makes them by turns starkly stylized as an Egyptian mask or sweet as a stained glass window. Backing up Lady Day on the radio." A strong series of images of ink and gouache capture the beauty of faces, from the very old to very young, from golden to blue- black. The imagery springs to life at once: "Ring-a-levio warriors/Stickball heroes" "a full lipped, full hipped/Saint washing collard greens. Louis, from Trinidad, "Harlem was a promise." Listing the streets and the churches, naming Langston and Countee, Shango and Jesus, the text is rich with allusion. To newcomers from Waycross, Georgia, from East St. 1536, etc.) gives poetry a jazz backbeat to tell the story of Harlem, the historic center of African-American culture in New York City. A hot new artist and his distinguished father fashion a picture book with a stirring sound at its center.
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