The Horn Book Guide

LITERATURE

Nelson, Marilyn

Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World

80 pp. | Dial | October, 2009 | Trade ISBN 978-0-8037-3187-5 $21.99

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Twenty poems, voiced by instruments, summarize (somewhat obliquely) the history of swing. Nelson's verbal evocations of the music and its players, and her wry asides, re-create the time period. Pinkney's vibrant watercolors, with such additions as scraps of music, capture the players' courage, the joys of performance, the sober face of war, and the reality of segregation. Timeline, websites. Bib.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2009