Description

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The opening verse of this latest father/son collaboration probes the very essence of a form--and a feeling; it asks the question that anyone who has sought solace in music can relate to. The pair's first composition wandered through a Harlem collage, depicting "a call, a song, the mood indigo, a language of darkness." This new duet is the blues: verbally and visually, it explores the idiom while exemplifying it. A call and response accompanies each painting. As the journey progresses, the lyrics and art look at loss through the lenses of slavery, poverty, lynching, love spurned, fear of dying and of living. An author's note provides a lucid description of the history, elements, and importance of the blues.

About the Author

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Walter Dean Myers (1937 - 2014) was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He was one of the premier authors of books for children, and received numerous awards including the Michael L. Printz award and the Coretta Scott King Award.

Christopher Myers is a writer and fine artist, but he is best known for his award-winning picture books, such as the Caldecott and Coretta Scott King honor book Harlem, written by his father, and his own Black Cat, which also received a Coretta Scott King Honor Award. He lives and works in New York City.