Kids' Music Friday: "Entomology" by Big World Audio Theatre

Did I just hear you wishing that there were more jazzy songs about insects? Big World Audio Theatre granted your wish with this fun and informative video, "Entomology." Enjoy!

--Andrea W., Headquarters

Celebrating African American Children's Literature: Sean Qualls

Sean Qualls’ picture book illustrations, with muted color and mixed media design, bring the stories of families and musicians to life.

Children will enjoy reading “Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane” by Carole Boston Weatherford over and over again. Sean Qualls’ illustrations capture the young John Coltrane as he listens to the music all around him, including his Daddy’s ukulele. his Mama’s phonographs, and the train engines whistling past. The colors and design mirror John Coltrane’s  jazz music, disciplined, exact, and free. Pair this book with a John Coltrane cd  and you’ll share a wonderful moment with young readers.   

“Freedom Song: The Story of Henry “Box” Brown”, written by Sally M. Walker tells the true story of Henry Brown’s escape from slavery by hiding in a crate that was sent by abolitionists in Virginia to Philadelphia in 1849.  Sean Qualls’ illustrations bring historic detail, emotion and suspense to the story. 

“The Case For Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage” is the collaboration  of Sean Qualls and his wife, Selina Alko. This book presents the family behind the Supreme Court Case, Loving vs Virginia,  that overruled the state of Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage in 1967.  With the opening, two page illustration we meet a happy family, Richard and Mildred Loving and their three children, and we learn of their challenges and triumph. Older children might enjoy comparing and contrasting the artists’ individual styles.

--Teresa R., Sachs