Publishers Weekly
★ 02/06/2023
Music proves “My treasure./My gold” in this autobiographical picture book centering singer Roberta Flack (b. 1937). Raised without “fancy-fine clothes,/ high-priced toys,/ or other richy-rich/ things,” Flack grew up in a musical household in Asheville, N.C., “tap-tap-tapp out tunes/ on tabletops,/ windowsills,” and dreaming of owning a piano. After the family moves to Green Valley, Va., Flack’s father spots an “old, ratty, beat-up, weather-worn, faded” piano in a junkyard, and as he fixes it up and paints it a “grassy green,” Flack’s dreams swell from piano lessons to a whole life “wrapped up in/ the majesty,/ the magic/ of music.” Focusing on childhood dreams realized through persistence and effort, Flack and Bolden employ spare, matter-of-fact verse to share the story of this initial piano and the hope it represented. Goodman’s digitally finished gouache portraits highlight young Flack and her piano with pops of green and gold, while swirling tendrils of color represent musical sound. An author’s note and “career highlights” timeline conclude. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
★ “A moving testimonial to the effects of instilling a love of live music in childhood.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ "Flack and Bolden employ spare, matter-of-fact verse to share the story of this initial piano and the hope it represented." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
★ "A warm, soulful picture book autobiography about a living legend that will inspire burgeoning artists to pursue their dreams no matter their circumstances." —School Library Journal, starred review
School Library Journal
★ 03/01/2023
Gr 2–5—With lilting text and stunning art, Flack's lovely autobiographical picture book highlights little Roberta's passion for music and the love of a family with little means who supported their daughter's big dreams. "I'd use my elbows on the ebonies/ because my fingers were too short./ Mother and Daddy were so tickled by that—/ and so proud too." The rhythmic and inviting narrative shares how her father found an upright in the junkyard, rescued it, and painted it green. The rest is history. In her picture book debut, Goodman's mixed-media illustrations are dazzling; there is joy on every page. From cozy family scenes to expansive skyscapes, light shines through in each spread. Curvy lines lend a feeling of musicality and wholeness to the art. Back matter includes an author's note expanding on Flack's musical career, from teaching music at a junior high school to being discovered as pianist and singer at the restaurant she worked at part-time to recording her first album in 1969 and the Roberta Flack Foundation. It also features a list of career highlights, including mentions of her well-known "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song." VERDICT A warm, soulful picture book autobiography about a living legend that will inspire burgeoning artists to pursue their dreams no matter their circumstances.—Shelley M. Diaz
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-09-28
Singer Flack looks back on her childhood.
The titular piano, rescued from a junkyard for the 9-year-old prodigy, serves as a memorable central image, but the memoir the renowned singer and co-author Bolden weave around it is really about the joys of growing up in a musical family and turning musical dreams into reality through years of listening, practice, and study. Identifying her parents, siblings, and music teachers by name as she goes, Flack vivaciously recalls first her excitement as her father and mother painstakingly fixed up the “old, / ratty, beat-up, / weather-worn, / faded, / stained, / stinky” instrument (“I couldn’t wait, couldn’t wait, couldn’t WAIT for / the paint to dry!”), then the intense feeling of “notes flowing through my fingers / to my body, / to my soul,” on the way to a life in music: “Grown-up me lived this dream! Year after year after year!” Goodman follows along in equally lyrical measures, giving the brown-skinned narrator the same rhapsodic smile as she goes from a vision of playing hymns on a rickety-looking church piano at “age three, maybe four” to accompanying herself on a huge concert grand as an adult star. In a closing note, with photos, she offers further nods to people who helped her as she fills in the details of her stellar career. Family members and other figures in the pictures are African American. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A moving testimonial to the effects of instilling a love of live music in childhood. (timeline) (Picture-book biography. 6-8)
