Reviewed by Zapoura Newton-Calvert
Review Source: Reading Is Resistance
Book Author: Alice Faye Duncan
Yellow Dog moved to Memphis!
He followed the city lights.
He sings the blues on
Beale Street now.
He sings all day and night.
— From Yellow Dog Blues
When Bo Willie sees his front gate swinging open, he knows Yellow Dog is gone. And so begins an epic adventure to find his lost pet. In author Alice Faye Duncan and illustrator Chris Raschka’s book Yellow Dog Blues, we take a trip through the Mississippi Delta on Highway 61 to Memphis, Tennessee. We track down Yellow Dog with the help of a diverse group of neighbors, family, and other community members, while we also learn the history of the blues. Each stop along the way is significant, contributing to the reader’s understanding of the legacy and the present day importance of this deeply rooted Black American music form.
From the very beginning, the journey is both surprising (we hear that Yellow Dog has jumped on a greyhound bus and joined a blues band) and familiar (this story is a quest). When we find out that Yellow Dog ultimately won’t be coming home with Bo Willie, we see the blues in action and honor the mixture of loss, change, and joy that the protagonist experiences as his journey comes to an end.
This may seem like a simple lost-and-found story at first glance, but rich layers of community, musical, and historical meaning accompanied by vivid, hand-printed and sewn illustrations make this so much more. Each location or musician’s name gives the reader an opportunity to learn — to listen to Muddy Waters, read about the Merigold Club, and visit Beale Street, where we finally find Yellow Dog. The appendix of the book also gives additional information on the context of how and why the Delta Blues art form emerged, as a response to enslavement, systemic racism, “loss, loneliness, and suffering,” but also as an expression of “dancing pleasure, soul reflection, and thrilling joy.” Duncan writes, “Out of these spirit-breaking systems of injustice during and after slavery, Black Americans gave birth to blues music.”
While the book’s focus is on Black American history and music, this story also maps the region’s history of immigration, agricultural labor, cross-cultural intersections, and more. Honoring the Chinese-Americans (represented here by the Yee family) and Mexican-Americans (hinted at in the Hicks’ Tamale Stand in Clarksdale), who first migrated to the Mississippi Delta in the early 1900s, we see a complicated and diverse picture of the region, where food, commerce, and musical traditions intersect and influence each other. Even the author’s choice of illustrator was an intentional exploration and celebration of cross-cultural collaboration: “Duncan notes that she intentionally picked a white illustrator as an “expression of racial reconciliation.” The deliberate and beautiful complicating of a narrative that is often flattened out in our history books makes for a vibrant reading experience.
In an interview with the School Library Journal, Duncan calls this book a fable. And that it is! A modern fable that children can read to grow their foundational learning about the history of the United States. Even more important than imported fables that we so often find on classroom shelves, this is a home-grown story teaching us about the complexity of our nation’s history and the joy that we can still experience and create if we acknowledge and celebrate it. This complexity is beautifully echoed in the lyrical, flowing textual choices and the mixed media illustrations. Both harken back to musical and handwork traditions of early America, traditions which themselves have diverse and ancient roots and immeasurable impact on our artistic traditions and practices today. The result is a book that sings with a call and response that invites the reader to engage on and beyond the page.
Zapoura Newton-Calvert serves as a fellow with Teaching for Change. She is a professor, emergent strategist, curriculum writer, and co-founder of Reading Is Resistance.
Yellow Dog Blues by Alice Faye Duncan
Published by Eerdmans Young Readers on September 6, 2022
Genres: Music
Pages: 32
Reading Level: Grade K, Grades 1-2
ISBN: 9781467465892
Review Source: Reading Is Resistance
Also by this author: Evicted!
Publisher's Synopsis: A lyrical road trip through the Mississippi Delta, exploring the landmarks that shaped one of America’s most beloved musical traditions.
One morning, Bo Willie finds the doghouse empty and the gate wide open! Farmer Fred says Yellow Dog hit Highway 61 and started running. Aunt Jessie picks up Bo Willie in her pink Cadillac, and together they look for his missing puppy love. Their search leads them from juke joints to tamale stands to streets ringing with the music of B.B. King and Muddy Waters. Where, where did that Yellow Dog go?
Acclaimed creators Alice Faye Duncan and Chris Raschka present a boogie-woogie journey along the Mississippi Blues Trail. With swinging free verse and stunning hand-stitched art, Yellow Dog Blues is a soulful fable about what happens when the blues grabs you and holds on tight.
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