Candlewick Press just sent me a copy of THE COSMOBIOGRAPHY OF SUN RA by Chris Raschka and I think they might have another Caldecott on their hands. Not only is the cover visually stunning and intriguing (reminds me a bit of his Mysterious Thelonious, which I also love), the writing is superb. I adore the opening line,
"Sun Ra always said that he came from Saturn.It tells place, character, pulls the reader in. The illustrator is a genius with words as well.
Now, you know and I know that this is silly. No one comes from Saturn.
And yet.
If he did come from Saturn, it would explain so much."
The book describes key moments in Sun Ra's life and what music meant to him and what his music meant to the world. It's all surrounded by Chris' lush artwork, so full of movement. (Click the images to see them larger in a new window.)
Of course, it would be cruel to tease with all this artistic expression of music without including the music, so here is Sun Ra's Sun Song (the image will take you to YouTube):
THE COSMOBIOGRAPHY OF SUN RA. Copyright © 2014 by Chris Raschka. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.
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