A Rock and Roll Persona

In 1983 a group of prominent names in the music industry formed the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.  The primary goal of this group after the establishment of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was to find a city in which to construct a building which would serve to honor the inductees and promote this genre of music.  It was September 2, 1995 when the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame welcomed visitors for the first time.

Prior to that time in 1986 the first inductees were named.  Of those sixteen men, one of ten performers is Elvis Presley.  Elvis Is King! (Schwartz & Wade Books, January 8, 2019) written by Jonah Winter with illustrations by Red Nose Studio chronicles this signature musician's rise to fame.




Elvis Is Born!
But alas, he is born
in a humble shack
on the wrong side of the railroad tracks,
the side where the poorest of the poor people live,
down down down in the Deep South---Tupelo, Mississippi.

Twenty-eight subsequent short, concise chapters highlight significant contributory events. At an early age Elvis's father is sent to jail for fourteen months.  Before and at ten as a shy little boy Elvis sings solo in church and at a county fair talent show.

Knowing Elvis has a gift, his mother buys him a guitar for his eleventh birthday.  This took a lot of saving and sacrifice.  The boy cannot stop singing and playing his guitar, even when he should not.  A fortuitous moment outside an African American church with gospel music singing makes a memorable impression.

Leaving Tupelo, hoping for a better future, the family lands in Memphis.  It's a struggle for the trio to live in a one-room apartment sharing a bathroom with other residents.  Elvis, now a teen, is the breadwinner and a student.  He decides it's time for a change.

With hair dyed black and wearing stand-out-in-the-crowd second-hand store clothes, Elvis croons his way to a crowd-pleasing success at his high school talent show.  Dixie Locke becomes Elvis's one true forever love.

After graduation Elvis haunts clubs listening to blues.  Recording a song on a record on his own leads to an important phone call; Sun Records wants to record Elvis!  It takes several tries but it's an instant success.

When people see Elvis perform, they go crazy at his movements and the sound of his voice.  The number of his fans grows but heartbreak is in the offing.  There are costs for fame not measured by dollars and cents.  Elvis is a star.


The length of the chapters, the number of sentences or phrases in each one, is determined by the portion of Elvis's life author Jonah Winter wishes to disclose.  Each chapter is a relevant layer forming the whole individual the public sees.  Specific word choices supply an easy conversational narrative.  Here is another chapter.

County Fair Talent Show
Look at Little Elvis up onstage,
shy as he can be, ten years old,
so small he has to stand on a chair to reach the microphone,
but when he opens his mouth to sing---
a tearjerker song about a dog that dies---
everybody listens to every word.  When he is done:
Clappin' and hootin'!
ELVIS IS LOVED!
What a feeling that is.
(Fifth prize!)


One look at the open dust jacket and you know the artwork in this book is a showstopper much like Elvis.  The decision to have the text ELVIS like a neon sign and show only a portion of his face with that signature hair style is excellent.  To the left, on the back, Elvis with his eyes closed, is singing and playing his guitar as he vibrates before his audience on the stage.

On the underside of the dust jacket illustrator Red Nose Studio (Chris Sickels) displays elements from his pictures labeling them with how they were made.  They are shown in actual size.  He also asks readers to locate these objects in the story.

The book case is done in the blue seen on the jacket.  To the left, on the back, a microphone on a stand is placed on a stage.  On the front, the title is recreated with a star hanging from the top between "L" and "V".  Elvis's guitar is leaning against an empty folding chair.  Two different shades of blue, light and dark, cover the opening and closing endpapers.  On the title page is an old radio with a single rose in a vase on top.  Above this is a family portrait.

All the illustrations

are hand-built three-dimensional sets shot with a Canon EOS 5D Markill Digital SLR camera.

Each scene is meticulously created replete with accurate details.  Some are full-page pictures and others span two pages.  Two accentuate the moment, the point of view shifts from bringing us close to the subject or giving us a larger view.  When the chapter reads

The First Cheeseburger Ever Eaten by Elvis

all we see is the table top of a booth with two beverage glasses and a single cheeseburger.  Elvis and his mother are seated opposite each other on benches.  We can only see their legs and feet.  His mother is barefoot.  It's as if we have stepped back in time with this individual.

One of my many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  The background is in hues of sunset rose, orange and blue in the sky at day's end.  A large sign in neon letters spreads across most of the two pages.  It reads

RAINBOW
SKATE RINK.

Seated on top of the sign and looking over the city below is Elvis and Dixie Locke. Their backs are to us. Elvis has his guitar. 


Elvis Is King! written by Jonah Winter with illustrations by Red Nose Studio is a stellar picture book biography about this one-of-a-kind rock and roll musician.  It informs readers but also will inspire them to realize you can come from nothing and become exactly what you want to be.  The blend of words and art is fabulous.  Whether you are a fan or not, you will want this title in your professional and personal collections.  At the conclusion of the book there is a two-page author's note.

To learn more about Jonah Winter and Red Nose Studio, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Red Nose Studio has two other places to visit, here and here, for more about this title. Chris Sickels, Red Nose Studio, has accounts on Instagram and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view interior images.  Jonah Winter is interviewed at Book Q&As With Deborah Kalb about this title.  At author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast this book is showcased.


Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to view the other selections by participants in the 2019 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

She Never Gives Up

There will be times when reading a picture book biography when you feel your admiration for the individual growing page by page.  You can't help but speculate on the strength of character necessary for this person to continue pursuing their life's goals.  In the face of continuous adversity, what inspires this person to endure and persevere?

As you read the final sentence on the final page, a hope grows inside you.  Unlike most of the biographies you read, this amazing person is still alive.  However remote the possibility, you long for the opportunity to meet them.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R. B. G. vs. Inequality (Abrams Books for Young Readers, August 8, 2017) written by Jonah Winter with illustrations by Stacy Innerst will embolden readers to pursue their life's ambitions with the same intention.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury:  During this trial, you will learn about a little girl who had no clue just how important she would become.

Step by step, incident by incident, beginning with her birth in 1933 Ruth Bader Ginsburg forged ahead against the status quo, what was expected and accepted.  Her parents, Jewish, came from families leaving Europe due to persecution for their religious beliefs.  Her father never finished high school.  Her mother graduated from high school by the time she was fifteen but went to work supporting a brother's college education.  She continued saving every single cent she made after marriage so her daughter could go to college.

Growing up in a home in Brooklyn, New York, with books and a mother who supported weekly trips to the public library, Ruth knew the opportunities the world offered.  She also knew its cruelty in the form of anti-Semitism.  In school Ruth pursued many interests but at an early age her interest in the laws governing our United States was apparent.  Sadness descended on Ruth though on her high school graduation day.  Her beloved mother passed away.

Having earned a scholarship, Ruth went to Cornell University.  In 1950 Ruth and other women were outnumbered by male students, four to one.  To be seen as knowledgeable was detrimental for young women.  She hid and studied.  She also met a young man who admired knowledgeable young women.  His name was Martin Ginsburg.

Despite discouragement, even from her father and against the existing norms of the time, Ruth went to law school (after marrying Martin).  Did you know that at Harvard Law School, at that time, Ruth was not allowed to use the periodical room because she was a woman?  Did you know that as the only woman in a lecture hall, Ruth endured ridicule by professors because she was a woman?  She (and other women) always answered the questions correctly;

. . . she had to, she was representing all women.

Time and time again, Ruth did the work of three people to accomplish her goals.  Time and time again Ruth met with extreme prejudice.  Did you know that she was turned down by law firms because she was a woman, she was Jewish and she was a mother?  With the 1970s came the age of women starting to have their say.  Not one to be openly protesting Ruth fought for the rights of women in her own style, through the law.

Decade after decade her voice was heard as the person in charge of the ACLU Women's Rights Project, as an appointed judge in the U. S. Court of Appeals (appointed by President Jimmy Carter) and as a member of the United States Supreme Court (appointed by President Bill Clinton).  She was sixty years old.  Her dissents in serving on the Supreme Court are legendary.  Today at the age of eighty-four Ruth Bader Ginsburg is still a member of the United States Supreme Court, a voice for those who need it the most.


The writing of Jonah Winter captivates readers immediately.  You can feel a tension (and suspense) building as Ruth Bader Ginsburg encounters obstacle after obstacle but does not halt her pursuits.  Each time you find yourself inwardly cheering for this woman, applauding her achievements and expressing gratitude for her sense of purpose.  The technique of presenting her life as a case is brilliant.

Jonah Winter chronicles Ruth's life prior to law school as absolute truths, supported by research.  He continues with specific acts of inequality as exhibits and concludes with her singular victories (even her dissents are victorious).  Here is one of the exhibits.

H.  Exhibit H:  Ruth would speak up at faculty meetings---and the male professors would totally ignore her.  A male professor would then say the very same thing that Ruth had said---and get acknowledged for being smart.  This kept happening even after Ruth became Columbia's first tenured female law professor.


The design of the waving United States flag seen on the opened dust jacket extends to both flap edges.  On the right flap a smaller interior image of Ruth and her mother appears at the bottom.  On the left flap Ruth is seen reading one of her dissents in the Supreme Court.  The back of the dust jacket contains a yellow, lined legal pad acting as a place holder for the opening statement of this "case".  Beneath it Ruth as a little girl stands with determination etched on her face.

Spanning the opened book case, on a background of parchment brown, are the scales of justice.  The center is placed along the spine.  On the left are eight justices, serious and frowning.  On the right Ruth Bader Ginsburg is stepping into the other scale which is filled with books.  One hand is holding a gavel and the other is grasping the line holding the scale.

On the opening and closing endpapers ten rows of shelves hold books from left to right.  Ruth is standing on a ladder, wearing her justice robes, reaching for a book.  These books extend to the following page at the beginning and at the close of the book.  On the title page, the waving flag provides a background for Ruth as a young girl, reading.

Rendered in gouache, ink and Photoshop illustrator Stacy Innerst provides readers with a detailed, poignant portrait of Ruth, during her entire life.  His opening two page picture of a little girl, holding a book in a court room and standing before a jury (us) is particularly powerful.  The essence of the text is distilled in each image.

To show how Ruth's mother worked but was well-read, we see her mopping floors with a mop and bucket and holding a book, reading, at the same time.  To depict anti-Semitism a dark vehicle spans from the entire right across the gutter to most of the left side.  Peering out the back window is Ruth.  She is looking at a sign on a resort fence which reads:

NO DOGS
or JEWS
ALLOWED .

Stacy Innerst alters his picture sizes in keeping with the narrative and to punctuate pacing.  He provides appropriate details in keeping with Ruth's life and the historical setting of each visual.  For the exhibits, each portrait is placed on an opened, yellow and lined legal pad.  At each page turn you are drawn into his illustrations becoming a part of the scene.

One of my many favorite illustrations is of Ruth hiding in the bathroom to study.  It gives specific force to just how much inequality was prevalent then (and sometimes still today).  Ruth is pictured wearing her Cornell sweater seated on the floor of the bathroom under the sink.  Books are spread across the black tile floor.  The background walls are pink tiles with a small border.


Even after several readings the importance of this book, its power, does not diminish.  Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of R. B. G. vs. Inequality written by Jonah Winter with illustrations by Stacy Innerst is a picture book biography to be shared as often as possible.  I highly recommend it being placed on your professional and personal bookshelves.  At the conclusion of this book are a glossary and an author's note.

To discover more about Jonah Winter and Stacy Innerst, please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Jonah Winter is interviewed at author Deborah Kalb's site about this title.  At Stacy Innerst's site you can view interior illustrations.  This title is one of the ten The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Books Award winners.  It is also one of the 2018 Sydney Taylor Book Award Notable books.  NPR Morning Edition recently (January 22, 2018) chatted with Ruth Bader Ginsburg about the #MeToo Movement.


Please take a few minutes to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to note the other titles selected this week by participants in the 2018 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.