This Jazzman

Title: This Jazz Man    

Author: Karen Ehrhardt  

Illustrator: R.G. Roth 

Publication Date: 2006  

Genre/Format: Fiction/Picture Book  

Summary:  A jazzy twist on the song "This Old Man"!

What I Think: I loved the artwork on the cover of this book the second I saw it, and as I started flipping through the pages, it got even better!  The artwork is lots of fun and words throughout the book seem to dance on the page.  What makes it even better is that the text is as jazzy and unique as the artwork.  It completely exudes rhythm and musical vocabulary.  For younger kids, you can use it to incorporate some counting!  You could even have kids come up and do a little dance and "give them a hand"!  I'm ready to bounce and boogy out of my seat just writing about it.  At the end, it includes short, musical biographies of nine famous African-American jazz greats! 

Read Together: Pre-K - 8  

Read Alone: 3 - 8  

Read With: Cats' Night Out (Paula Wiseman Books) by Caroline Stutson; Non-fiction books about jazz; Biographies of jazz musicians;  

Snatch of Text: 

"This jazz man, he plays one, 

He plays rhythm with his thumb,

With a snap! snap! snazzy-snap!

Give the man a hand,

This jazz man scats with the band."  

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections

Writing Strategies to Practice: Word Choice, Onomatopoeia, Rhyme    

Writing Prompts: Write your own rendition of "This Old Man" with your own musical twist!  Write about your favorite kind of music or you favorite musician.  While/after listening to a sample of jazz music, describe what the music makes you feel or what you visualize as you listen to the music.    

Topics Covered: Music, Jazz, Culture, African-American Culture, Math    

Translated to Spanish: No