Be Boy Buzz

by bell hooks, Chris Raschka (Illustrator)

Overview

From legendary author and critic bell hooks and multi-Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka comes an acclaimed ode to Black boy joy, perfect for fans of I Am Every Good Thing and I Am Enough.


I be boy. All bliss boy. All fine beat. All beau boy. Beautiful.


Here a tight, exuberant story from two award-winning creators that captures the essence and energy of what it means to be a boy. Chris Raschka's soulful illustrations buzz with a force that is the perfect match for bell hooks' powerful words.




Praise for Be Boy Buzz:

*"This spare, poetic riff on young manhood plumbs the delights and contradictions of what it means to be a boy... Hooks's rhythmic blend of brevity and eloquence launches Raschka's trademark visual haiku... This life-affirming book will have readers as much 'in love with being a boy' as are its own utterly irresistible characters."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484788400
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	12/27/2016
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	536,477
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

A world-renowned cultural critic, feminist theorist, and intellectual, bell hooks is a distinguished author and professor of English. She has written several acclaimed children's books including Be Boy Buzz, Skin Again, and Happy to be Nappy, all illustrated by Chris Raschka.


Chris Raschka is the Caldecott-Award-winning illustrator of The Hello Goodbye Window and A Ball for Daisy. He also received a Caldecott Honor for Yo! Yes? and has written and illustrated numerous books for children, including several titles by bell hooks: Happy to be Nappy, Skin Again, and Be Boy Buzz. A 2012 nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, he lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

"[The] poetry is rhythmic and rolling, each word finessed to fit the pulse of [hooks's] verse. The lilt of the language is contagious, begging to be read aloud... Raschka's mixed media illustrations are an energetic dream... Buy it for the boys and all those who love them."
—Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books

"[A] pleasing and affirmative visual and textual interpretation of what it means to be a little boy: be boy buzz, indeed."
—Kirkus Reviews


"A wonderful collaboration, this book is an exuberant as the boys it describes."
—School Library Journal


"The lapsit audience will want to join in the buzz, point at the pages, and act out the movements and the loving embrace."
—Booklist

From the Publisher

This stunning volume celebrates all things boy. The creators of Happy to Be Nappy set the stage with the bold opening sortie: "I be boy" appears on the left of the spread, paired with a deceptively simple layering of rectangles in blue line that pulsates on the page; opposite, a thoughtful-looking fellow, all elbows and knees slightly bent, seems poised for action. This spare, poetic riff on young manhood plumbs the delights and contradictions of what it means to be a boy particularly an African-American boy in a brief handful of sentences and with a few well-placed pastel lines that imply motion and emotion. From boys soaring ("All bliss boy") to boys sulking ("All bad boy beast" here Raschka conveys the mood with just the right-hand side of a furrowed brow, and two arms seemingly blocking readers from view), at play ("I be boy jumping") and at rest ("all think and dream time"), the words pinpoint boyhood's unflagging energy and exuberance, vulnerability ("Hug me close. Don't let me down") and attitude. Hooks's rhythmic blend of brevity and eloquence launches Raschka's trademark visual haiku. His series of watercolor and pastel portraits set off against a warm cappuccino backdrop conjures fingers and toes, features and squiggles of hair from simple sweeps of his brush, and evokes characters suffused with humanity and tenderness. The graceful design visually balances the spare text, lively portraits and geometric graphics which harmoniously orbit the spreads. This life-affirming book will have readers as much "in love with being a boy" as are its own utterly irresistible characters. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 2-An alliterative ode to the snips, snails, and puppy-dog tails gender. The syncopated text suits the subject well: "I be boy./All bliss boy./All fine beat./All beau boy." It captures children running, jumping, "talking way too loud," and then, "sitting all quiet still." Brown-skinned boys with long, curving arms and curly hair lope and leap across sienna-colored pages; bright squiggles of scribbled design add a geometric counterpoint to the flowing lines of kids with big, open hearts and sweet minds, ready for the world. A wonderful collaboration, this book is as exuberant as the boys it describes.-Anna DeWind Walls, Milwaukee Public Library Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

The creators of Happy to Be Nappy (1999) return with a fine companion paean to boy-ness. "I be boy. / All bliss boy. / All fine beat. All beau boy. / Beautiful. / All bad boy beast. / All boy." Hooks's spare text celebrates the many aspects of being a boy, from running and jumping to sitting still and dreaming, the chopped-off declarative sentences creating a jumpy flow that embodies the pent-up energy of preschoolers. Raschka's equally spare illustrations appear on a background of terra-cotta paper, and feature brown-skinned boys pictured as heads and limbs emerging from amorphous clothing depicted as short white lines overlaid with circles and jags of colored lines. The energy and movement conveyed by these lines, complemented by irregular tight boxy squiggles that appear floating on the page, enhances the energetic rhythm of the text. The words march across the page, varying in size and placement to complete the sense of irregular bursts of energy. For the most part, the boy figures appear without relation to one another, with two major exceptions: in one spread-"All boy. Hug me close. Don't let me down"-a boy appears wrapped in the embrace of a nurturing adult; in the next, two boys-"All boy. Big open heart. Sweet mind"-appear with elongated arms joining to create one big circle, harmoniously enclosing two of the boxy energy-squiggles. In all, a pleasing and affirmative visual and textual interpretation of what it means to be a little boy: be boy buzz, indeed. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews