Common Sense Media Review
By Regan McMahon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Jazzy bio of Josephine Baker inspiring, bittersweet.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 4+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
Young Josephine is born in 1906 in St. Louis and grows up very poor, "singin' nothin' but the blues." When kids are cruel to her, she makes funny faces with her eyes bugging out or crossed. She is a great dancer and figures out she can get paid for dancing and pretending to be a fool. After whites burn down her black neighborhood, she leaves and joins a traveling show that takes her all over the United States. She makes her Broadway debut at 15, but, like other African-American performers in that era, is forced to wear black face makeup to exaggerate her features for comic effect. "Each night she wore those baggy pants, / she wore what people called 'blackface.' / As much as all those white folks loved her, / it was an insult to her race." In 1925, at age 19, she heads to Paris, where she finds fame and fortune, dancing, singing, and making funny faces -- finally treated with the kind of respect she could never attain in the U.S., where, as the Author's Note explains, "she had been offered only humiliating roles."
Is It Any Good?
JAZZ AGE JOSEPHINE is an exciting picture book biography of one of the world's most beloved entertainers of her time. Winter's jazzy rhyming verse and two-time Caldecott Honoree Marjorie Priceman's bold, exuberant illustrations capture the deprivation of Josephine's childhood, the triumph of her performing career, and the glitz and glamor of the 1920s, known as the Jazz Age. Baker playfully dances across the pages, contorting her body into animal poses and kicking her long legs with abandon. It's a vivid portrayal that conveys Baker's irrepressible energy, as well as her melancholy at not being able to return to the land of her birth, lest she face prejudice and discrimination.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why Josephine Baker felt she had to leave the United States to happy and successful.
Why is it important to read about famous people who lived a long time ago. What can we learn from them?
How does the illustrator show the fun and excitement of performing and living in Paris? Do you notice how the colors change from her poor childhood to her dazzling life on the stage?
How do the author's rhymes convey the energy of a great dancer and singer?
Book Details
- Author :
- Illustrator : Marjorie Priceman
- Genre : Picture Book
- Topics : History
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Atheneum
- Publication date : January 3, 2012
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 4 - 8
- Number of pages : 40
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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