Let's Clap, Jump, Sing & Shout; Dance, Spin & Turn It Out!
Games, Songs, and Stories from an African American Childhood
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
"Part songbook, part research text, this work is perfect for families to share together or for young scholars who seek to discover an important piece of cultural history."— School Library Journal, starred review
From Newbery Honor winner Patricia C. McKissack and two-time Caldecott Honor winner Brian Pinkney comes an extraordinary must-have collection of classic playtime favorites.
This very special book is sure to become a treasured keepsake for African American families and will inspire joy in all who read it.
Parents and grandparents will delight in sharing this exuberant book with the children in their lives. Here is a songbook, a storybook, a poetry collection, and much more, all rolled into one. Find a partner for hand claps such as “Eenie, Meenie, Sassafreeny,” or form a circle for games like “Little Sally Walker.” Gather as a family to sing well-loved songs like “Amazing Grace” and “Oh, Freedom,” or to read aloud the poetry of such African American luminaries as Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. And snuggle down to enjoy classic stories retold by the author, including Aesop’s fables and tales featuring Br’er Rabbit and Anansi the Spider.
"A rich compilation to stand beside Rollins’s Christmas Gif’ and Hamilton’s The People Could Fly." —The Horn Book
"An ebullient collection.... There is an undeniable warmth and sense of belonging to these tales." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Over nine chapters, McKissack celebrates oral traditions in African-American communities through a vibrant assemblage of rhymes, proverbs, folktales, and songs, drawing on memories of her own upbringing. Movement is central to many offerings particularly in opening chapters that share clapping, rope-jumping, and ring games such as "Eenie-Meenie-Sassafreeny" and "Hot, Hot Pepper" and it's ably reflected in Pinkney's swoopy watercolor-and-ink illustrations (not all seen by PW), which frequently feature dancing and singing children, as well as familiar folk figures such as Anansi, Br'er Rabbit, and John Henry in later sections. McKissack often addresses how slavery and discrimination shaped many of these tales and songs, including the coded messages of "Follow the Drinking Gourd" or a hand-clapping song, "Shame," that she sung as a child in a segregated Nashville "to poke fun at the stores whose rules restricted us." It's a collection valuable both for its rich assembly of songs and stories that have delighted, comforted, and inspired generations of black families and for the illuminating historical context that McKissack brings to each selection. All ages.
