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Summary
Summary
This autobiographical picture book by the multiple Grammy Award-winning singer Roberta Flack recounts her childhood in a home surrounded by music and love- it all started with a beat-up piano that her father found in a junkyard, repaired, and painted green.
Growing up in a Blue Ridge mountain town, little Roberta didn't have fancy clothes or expensive toys...but she did have music. And she dreamed of having her own piano.
When her daddy spies an old, beat-up upright piano in a junkyard, he knows he can make his daughter's dream come true. He brings it home, cleans and tunes it, and paints it a grassy green. And soon the little girl has an instrument to practice on, and a new dream to reach for--one that will make her become a legend in the music industry.
Here is a lyrical picture book--perfect for aspiring piano players and singers--that shares an intimate look at Roberta Flack's family and her special connection to music.
Author Notes
Tonya Bolden is the author of ten books, including "Strong Men Keep Coming", "The Family Heirloom Cookbook", & "33 Things Every Girl Should Know". She lives in Brooklyn, New York.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2--5--"Little Me" is pop legend Roberta Flack, who grew up in North Carolina, without "fancy-fine clothes, high-priced toys, or other richy-rich things." What she had was music: her self-taught father played harmonica and piano, her mother the church organ. At "three, maybe four," Flack was already performing at church, but she longed for a piano of her own. After the family's move to Virginia, her father rescued an "old, ratty, beat-up, weather-worn, faded thing" from a DC junkyard and lovingly resurrected it into nine-year-old Roberta's miraculous green piano, enabling her talents to flourish. "Grown-up me lived this dream!" The appended author's note and career time line make illuminating additions. VERDICT Lauded author Bolden assists Flack in telling her remarkable story; actor Freeman embodies their text, adapting her rich voice to "little me" of various ages, often over snippets of complementary music, from Beethoven to Flack's own "Killing Me Softly."
Publisher's Weekly Review
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.)
Horn Book Review
This engaging picture-book memoir by multiple-Grammy-winner Flack, known for such 1970s megahits as âeoeThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Faceâe and âeoeKilling Me Softly with His Song,âe opens with young Robertaâe(tm)s early childhood. She describes it as filled with musical inspirations (her parents played harmonica and organ; she listened to classic songs on the radio) and dominated by her love of the piano and the dream of owning one. Flackâe(tm)s story finds its focus when her daddy brings home a piano from a junkyard (âeoeold, beat-up, weather-worn, faded...and it stank!âe), cleans it up, tunes it, and paints it green. Flackâe(tm)s delight in making music is at the center of the story, as she describes the joy she takes at playing her piano and her hours and hours of practice, with her success as an adult musician shown only briefly as the âeoeÂbigger dreamâe that her dedication made possible. That delight in making music is evident throughout in ÂGoodmanâe(tm)s gouache illustrations, which show Flackâe(tm)s face shining ecstatically when she plays; Goodman fills those pages with joyful green swirls, as if the essence of that beloved green piano is escaping into the air. An authorâe(tm)s note from Flack adds more details and a list of career highlights completes the book. Laura KoenigMarch/April 2023 p.95 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
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) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Before Roberta Flack was a five-time Grammy winner, she was a little girl in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. With Coretta Scott King Author honoree Bolden, Flack describes her formative years in this lovely, affirming picture-book biography. While young Flack didn't have "richy-rich things," she did have the gift of music through two musically inclined parents, her church, and her budding talent. But her dream was to have her own piano. After the family moves to a Black community in Virginia, Flack's father finds a small, beat-up upright piano in a nearby junkyard. After the family lovingly repairs it and paints it green, Flack not only realizes her immediate dream but also uses it to propel her into a career in music. Goodman makes her debut here with cheery illustrations that feature bright, swirling greens that accentuate Flack's treasure and her talent. Although Flack gives a few details about her later success as a musician in an author's note, the focus remains on young people realizing their own dreams.
