Spectacular Children's Biographies

I just spent some quality time with two new-to-us children's biographies: The Right Word: Roget and his Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet and Little Melba and Her Big Trombone by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illustrated by Frank Morrison

Bryant explores the life of Peter Mark Roget, the man behind everyone's favorite reference text, the thesaurus.  We see Roget grow from a boy who made lists to learn his Latin vocabulary, into a young man inspired by Linnaeus, into a teacher, a doctor, an inventor, and finally an author.  Bryant's text is easily readable and interesting.  She highlights important facets of Roget's life and ties them into Roget's obsession: lists.  For example, when Roget tells his mother not to worry about him, Bryant writes: "Perhaps worry wasn't quite the right word.  What was the right word?  Peter began a new list: worry, fret, grieve, despair, intrude, badger, annoy, plague, provoke, harass.  Enough to drive one mad."  The real treasure of this book is the layout and illustrations.  Sweet's illustrations are a combination of pencil and watercolor illustrations and photographed mixed media collages.  There is so much on each page to peer at and look through, at times it does feel a little overwhelming, but for me, it made the book one I wanted to spend more time with, savoring each illustration.   The author and the illustrator's notes at the end really helped to illuminate the reason behind the book and how the book was put together.  I was overjoyed with the bibliography, further reading, and sources at the end.

Melba Doretta Liston, self-taught trombone prodigy, had a whirlwind of a life, making music with big bands during the 30s, 40s, and 50s.  What Russell-Brown portrays of Melba's life is inspiring.  She teaches herself to play the trombone, graduates early, is invited to tour the country several big bands and composes music for nearly all of the jazz greats.  The details of her life as detailed in the afterword are a little more somber.  She was frequently the only woman on tour with these big bands.  Her tour with Billie Holiday was cut short due to both racism in the South and a lack of appreciation for the new be-bop sound.  She only released one solo album, and she suffered a debilitating stroke only five years after forming her own band.  Russell-Brown's prose really soars when she's writing about music and Melba's connection to it.  The illustrations though steal the show.  Morrison's oil paintings are full of color and look like they're going to burst from the page.  Melba is larger than life in them, she and her horn stretched across the whole page.  Russell-Brown compiled an extensive discography and bibliography to go along with this book, enabling the reader to both learn more about Melba AND hear the best of the jazz virtuoso.