My Dad Is a DJ
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine teams up with Keith Henry Brown on this lyrical picture book that celebrates music and Black identity.
Trevor’s dad is a DJ, and he always picks the best music—
tunes jivin’, beat drivin’, high fivin’!
—he’s DJ Dap Daddy!
But after his parents split up and Dad moves out, Trevor feels like the pitch doesn’t fit between them. Trevor has his own music now—hip-hop—and Dad can’t seem to let go of his old soul favorites. As the end-of-year dance approaches, Trevor and his father will have to find their new groove to get the party started.
My Dad Is a DJ is a hip-hoppin’, beat boppin’, tunes poppin’, not stoppin’ story of a father and son’s shared love of music and each other.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Music helps a father and son renew their bond after a period of change leaves them out of sync in this emotionally honest story. Via first-person narration, Black-cued child Trevor describes connecting with their father, who's DJ Dap Daddy on the radio. But when Dad moves out, Trevor begins to embrace new music with friends while Dad remains intent on the classics, creating a "new space between us." As Dad prepares to DJ the end-of-school party, Trevor struggles to communicate changing needs to someone who "thinks our music can stay the same." Brown's ink and pencil sketches—outlined in uneven loose lines and washed in layered watercolors—visualize the story's emotional push and pull through portraiture, metropolitan scenes, and music cover art and posters. When Trevor updates a playlist so that it remixes new and old tunes, the result leads to the pair DJing alongside one another—in sync once again. Rhythmic lines aptly communicate the meaning of the moment: "Growing a space where we both belong/ Finding our rhythm and making our song." Ages 4–7.
