3 Kids Dreamin'

Grade 2-5. Ramone plays guitar, Willie raps, and Yock is on the drums; together they make up a group called Squeezed. But they are squeezed in more than name, for Yock's mom yells, "Shut up,/Baby's goin' to sleep./My basement isn't no music place." F... Read more

Grade 2-5. Ramone plays guitar, Willie raps, and Yock is on the drums; together they make up a group called Squeezed. But they are squeezed in more than name, for Yock's mom yells, "Shut up,/Baby's goin' to sleep./My basement isn't no music place." Forced out of their practice space, the threesome prevail upon Moses Smith, an old blind bass player, who not only opens his home to the young musicians but also joins them in playing at a party he hosts. Overcoming their jitters, the kids realize their dream and rock the house with their sound. The text, except for Willie's rap, is a kind of jive poetry with its clipped phrases, dropped word endings, and rhythm. The black-crayon and ink illustrations pulse with the same energy the youngsters put into their music. Schutzer often isolates and enlarges an element from the text or from a full-page drawing: a single dangling light bulb delineating the basement; zigzags of sound waves from Ramone's amplifier; wringing hands representing the musicians' stage fright. When they leave the basement, the children are squeezed from full-page illustrations to half. They return once again to full-page artwork when Mr. Smith gives them the room they need. A bright and jazzy choice to use along with Libba Moore Gray's Little Lil and the Swing-Singing Sax  for a musical storyhour Less