One Love

by Cedella Marley, Bob Marley, Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Illustrator)

Overview

Adapted from one of Bob Marley's most beloved songs, One Love brings the joyful spirit and unforgettable lyrics of his music to life for a new generation. Readers will delight in dancing to the beat and feeling the positive groove of change when one girl enlists her community to help transform her neighborhood for the better. Adapted by Cedella Marley, Bob Marley's first child, and gorgeously illustrated by Vanessa Newton, this heartwarming picture book offers an upbeat testament to the amazing things that can happen when we all get together with one love in our hearts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452110196
Publisher:	Chronicle Books LLC
Publication date:	08/26/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Cedella Marley's life has always been rooted in music and culture. As the oldest child of Bob Marley, she has dedicated herself to keeping her father's message and memory alive. She is a musician as well, performing internationally with the three-time Grammy Award–winning Melody Makers, which consist of her brothers Ziggy and Steve and her sister Sharon. She lives in Miami, Florida, with her husband and three sons.
Bob Marley (1945 -1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He remains the most widely known performer of reggae music. In 1994, Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Vanessa Brantley-Newton is the author and illustrator of Let Freedom Sing and Don't Let Auntie Mable Bless the Table. She loves to craft, cook, collect vintage children's books, tell stories, make dolls, and shop. She lives in East Orange, New Jersey, with her husband, daughter, and two crazy cats, Kirby and Stripes.

Editorial Reviews

PreS-K—The message of this picture-book adaptation of the famous reggae musician's well-known song is laudable, and the words are simple and rhythmic: "One love, what my family gives to me. One love, what the flower gives the bee. One love, what Mother Earth gives the tree. One love, one heart, let's get together and feel all right!" This tribute by Marley's daughter contains a few lyrics on each page against a backdrop of Brantley-Newton's exuberant illustrations that tell the story of urban neighbors creating a park from what was once a garbage-strewn lot. The illustrations do the bulk of the work in this title, which would work well with Pat Brisson's Wanda's Roses (Boyds Mills, 2000).—Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC

School Library Journal

As she did in Three Little Birds (Tuff Gong, 2006), Cedella Marley adapts a song by her late father, reggae musician Bob Marley. She takes liberties with the lyrics: other than the song’s chorus (“One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel all right!”), the prose bears no resemblance to the original song. Marley replaces religious references with nature-based reflections on love: “One love, what the flower gives the bee./ One love, what Mother Earth gives the tree.” Readers rely more on Brantley-Newton’s (Let Freedom Sing) cheery, mixed-media illustrations to follow the book’s plot, in which a girl galvanizes her multiethnic community to pick up litter and plant flowers to open “One Love Park,” their cooperative efforts driving home the “let’s get together” thrust of the refrain. Filled with patterned materials and bold colors, Brantley-Newton’s illustrations are as sunny as the characters’ dispositions, and the scenes include several visual nods to Bob Marley. Conflict-free, it’s simply a feel-good story of a community coming together— Ages 4–8. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Deceptively simple and brilliantly executed.”-School Library Journal

From the Publisher

A sugary poem, very loosely based on the familiar song, lacks focus.

Using only the refrain from the original ("One love, one heart, let's get together and feel all right!"), the reggae great's daughter Cedella Marley sees this song as her "happy song" and adapts it for children. However, the adaptation robs it of life. After the opening lines, readers familiar with the original song (or the tourism advertisement for Jamaica) will be humming along only to be stopped by the bland lines that follow: "One love, what the flower gives the bee." and then "One love, what Mother Earth gives the tree." Brantley-Newton's sunny illustrations perfectly reflect the saccharine quality of the text. Starting at the beginning of the day, readers see a little girl first in bed, under a photograph of Bob Marley, the sun streaming into her room, a bird at the window. Each spread is completely redundant—when the text is about family love, the illustration actually shows little hearts floating from her parents to the little girl. An image of a diverse group getting ready to plant a community garden, walking on top of a river accompanies the words "One love, like the river runs to the sea."

Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here. (afterword) (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews