Picture Book #1:

Authors:  Leo and Diane Dillon
Title:  Jazz on a Saturday Night
Illustrator: Kathleen Westray and Leo & Diane Dillon
Readability score: Grade 1 to Grade 3
Genre: Fiction
Subgenre:  Historical fiction
Theme: Jazz and its culture
Primary and secondary characters: Miles Davis, Max Roach, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Stanley Clarke, Ella Fitzgerald, the audience.
Awards:  Coretta Scott King Book Award 2008
Publication date:  2007
Publishing company:  The Blue Sky Press
ISBN number:  10: 0-590-47893-1




Jazz on a Saturday Night takes place in a theatre where an audience is about to listen to a magical performance by the greatest jazz musicians of the 1940s.  All of the musicians prepare to play their music as the audience buzzes with excitement and anticipation.  Miles Davis begins to play his trumpet and the people in the audience can't help but move to the music.  Max Roach, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Stanley Clarke, and Ella Fitzgerald take turns performing in their own unique ways.  The audience is moved by the music.  When the performance is over and it is time to go home, everyone is still feeling the music.  They can't wait to come next Saturday night to listen to jazz again.


This book could easily be incorporated into a history lesson on the culture of the 1940s and 1950s, specifically in New Orleans.  This book could also be read during Black History Month because the characters in the story are celebrated African American musicians.  If I were to use this book to convey the feelings of the 1940s and 50s, I would first teach a history lesson on America during this time period.  Then, I would read the story aloud to my students and I would facilitate a grand conversation about the book by asking them if they recognize any of the characters.  I would ask questions, such as, "Have any of you ever heard of jazz before or heard it played somewhere?"  "Have any of you been to New Orleans, where it was created?"  For those students that have never heard of jazz, I will play the CD that comes with the book.  It has jazz music that the characters in the book actually played in real life.  This lesson incorporates several different learning styles so that all of the students will be interested and motivated by the events and culture of the 1940s and 50s.