Nice review from Publisher’s Weekly for my next picture book: Stalebread Charlie and the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band illustrated by the amazing Don Tate!
Here’s an excerpt: Stalebread Charlie and his band were real figures in the early history of jazz. Homeless newsboys who played hot tunes on jug band–style instruments, they busked the streets of New Orleans’ legendary Storyville neighborhood in the 1890s. Mahin (Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters) explains the band’s roots in a loving, wry voice […] After some false starts, the band takes off, and “the boys filled their hats with coins and their bellies with beignets.” The story uses onomatopoeias—“Sing-Taka-Taka,” “Scatta-Pat-Scat,” and “Skippity-Bippity-Skip”—to convey the band’s sound, and buoyant illustrations by Tate (Strong as Sandow) show a lively depiction of street life.
