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Summary
Summary
When you look in a mirror, who do you see?A boy? A girl?A son? A daughter?A runner? A dancer?Whoever and whatever you see―just put out your fist and give yourself an "I am" BAM!This jumping, jazzy, joyful picture book by the award-winning team of Walter Dean Myers and Christopher Myers celebrates every child, and everything that a child can be.
Author Notes
Walter Dean Myers was born on August 12, 1937 in Martinsberg, West Virginia. When he was three years old, his mother died and his father sent him to live with Herbert and Florence Dean in Harlem, New York. He began writing stories while in his teens. He dropped out of high school and enlisted in the Army at the age of 17. After completing his army service, he took a construction job and continued to write.
He entered and won a 1969 contest sponsored by the Council on Interracial Books for Children, which led to the publication of his first book, Where Does the Day Go? During his lifetime, he wrote more than 100 fiction and nonfiction books for children and young adults. His works include Fallen Angels, Bad Boy, Darius and Twig, Scorpions, Lockdown, Sunrise Over Fallujah, Invasion, Juba!, and On a Clear Day. He also collaborated with his son Christopher, an artist, on a number of picture books for young readers including We Are America: A Tribute from the Heart and Harlem, which received a Caldecott Honor Award, as well as the teen novel Autobiography of My Dead Brother.
He was the winner of the first-ever Michael L. Printz Award for Monster, the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. He also won the Coretta Scott King Award for African American authors five times. He died on July 1, 2014, following a brief illness, at the age of 76.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-The father-son team of Walter Dean and Christopher Myers has written and illustrated a picture book (EgmontUSA, 2009) that invites us to acknowledge all the people that each one of us can be. When young Jeremy looks in a mirror, he sees a "handsome dude" looking back. His sister adds that he is a little brother. He's also a son, a dancer, a writer, an artist, a dreamer, a city child, a runner, "a talker with many tales to tell," and more. As Jeremy adds identities, and fist-bumps people along the way, he realizes that there are probably many more adjectives to come. The rhythmic poems on each page are turned into exuberant dialogue by the narrators. Dion Graham has the perfect voice and intonation for the lively and savvy Jeremy, and Quincy Tyler Bernstine expressively voices the female characters. Mario Rodriquez's music echoes the theme and illustrations: a sweet girl comments that Jeremy is a dancer to a salsa beat; when he's described as a city child, there are background city sounds. Although Christopher Myers's vibrant collages are sometimes difficult to interpret, the juxtaposition of silhouette against the photo-collages and the lively arrangement of the text on each colorful page create a jazzy accompaniment to this invitation to self-discovery.-MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann and Thomas Jefferson Elementary Schools, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This always-inventive father and son team (Jazz) offers up an "I am jam," celebrating how every individual is really a collection of identities. The rap-like verse is voiced by a young narrator named Jeremy, who notices that every person he encounters sees him in a different light: to his sister, he's a little brother; to his teacher (whose real life counterparts may find inspiration in these pages for a memorable classroom activity), he's a writer; to a cute passerby, he's a dancer; to his mother, he's a dreamer. Each new identity is hailed with an exuberant fist bump: "The mailman lifted his fist./ I gave it a bam!/ It is kind of amazing all the people I am." Jeremy clearly enjoys the dizzying possibilities that emerge from his conversations, musing at one point, "I'm walking tall and I'm walking proud./ Looked in a mirror-I look like a crowd." Christopher Myers seconds that emotion with fluorescent and occasionally psychedelic collages that combine digital human figures (reminiscent of early iPod ads) with photographs. He conjures up a funky, visually fluid funhouse that proves pigeonholes are strictly for pigeons. Ages 5-9. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary, Intermediate) Self-esteem picture books have taken some abuse in these pages (see Daniel Greenstone's "Ain't I Great!: The Problem with Self-Esteem," November/December 2008), but even the more curmudgeonly among us might appreciate the message when it's dressed up as fine as it is in this picture book by Myers pere et fils. The poem-text has both swagger and bounce ("I looked in the mirror / and what did I see? / A real handsome dude / looking just like me") as young Jeremy celebrates, in cumulating verses, all the people, places, and things that make him who he is: he's his sister's brother, his father's son, a writer to his teacher, and so on. Each verse ends with variations on an irresistible chorus: "She put out her fist. / I gave it a bam! / I added dancer / to the answer / of just who I am!" Christopher Myers's collage illustrations present Matisse-like cutouts of human figures in hot, strong colors against almost abstractly cropped photos -- a parade, a boxing ring, animals at the zoo -- that suggest a world brimming with riches. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The Myersesfather and sonreunite for a poetic celebration of self that blends a sort of Whitman-esque hip-hop with '70s-vibe visuals. Adapting the cumulative cadences of Bill Martin's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Walter Dean Myers's text immediately establishes a preeminent self-affirmation: "I looked in the mirror / And what did I see? / A real handsome dude looking just like me." Narrator Jeremy hears from a succession of family, neighbors and community members and adds role after role to his portfolio. He's a brother, son, writer, city kid, artist, dancer, talker, runner, dreamer: "Looked in the mirror / I look like a crowd." Christopher Myers overlays eclectic photo collages with stylized, silhouetted figures in saturated hues of chartreuse, butternut, chocolate, magenta and more. The text's two upper-case typefaces look like gritty, spray-painted stencils and whimsical woodcuts. There's a touch of call-and-response in the refrain ("He put out his fist. / I gave it a BAM!") that begs to be read aloud. This vibrant synthesis of poetry and pictures is a natural for classrooms and family sharing. (author's note, not seen) (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Walt Whitman once wrote, I contain multitudes, and that important concept is brilliantly interpreted here by the Myers' father-son partnership. The elder Myers' rhythmic poem celebrates a young Everyman from Harlem who looks in the mirror to see a real handsome dude looking just like me. Moving through the city, he encounters family and friends who share their points of view: Along came my sister, / fine as she can be. / Hey, Jeremy,' she said, / You're little brother to me.' Each helps him see that he is a valued artist, runner, dreamer, and more, and that he has a lot to give to himself and the world. The innovative art and design represent different identities with colorful silhouettes placed against photos of people, places, and icons. Sometimes the connections are more obvious, like the photo of a sun, which plays on the word son, and there is an image of a stingray accompanying Jeremy's reference to himself as a silver-rayed moonbeamer ; other images, such as Buddha heads, giraffes, and ketchup bottles, suggest more abstract connections. The overall effect is that of performers in front of a huge screen of rapidly changing images at a pop concert or a video game, and blocks of solid color provide visual rest and keep the gutters clear. This very contemporary work is encouraging, energetic, and inspired.--Medlar, Andrew Copyright 2009 Booklist
