Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters

by Michael Mahin (Author) Evan Turk (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

An Ezra Jack Keats Book Award Winner

A New York Times Best Illustrated Book

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book

A Parents' Choice Gold Award Winner

A picture book celebration of the indomitable Muddy Waters, a blues musician whose fierce and electric sound laid the groundwork for what would become rock and roll.

Muddy Waters was never good at doing what he was told. When Grandma Della said the blues wouldn't put food on the table, Muddy didn't listen. And when record producers told him no one wanted to listen to a country boy playing country blues, Muddy ignored them as well. This tenacious streak carried Muddy from the hardscrabble fields of Mississippi to the smoky juke joints of Chicago and finally to a recording studio where a landmark record was made.

Soon the world fell in love with the tough spirit of Muddy Waters. In blues-infused prose and soulful illustrations, Michael Mahin and award-winning artist Evan Turk tell Muddy's fascinating and inspiring story of struggle, determination, and hope.

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Hardcover
$17.99

School Library Journal

K-Gr 3--This picture book biography tells the story of the early life of McKinley Morganfield (1913-83), aka Muddy Waters, an American blues legend. Born in rural Mississippi and raised by his Grandma Della, Waters was interested in music from an early age and improvised his own homemade instruments. He faced opposition throughout, from disapproving family members to sharecropper bosses, but resisted and persevered, as he was "never good at doing what he was told." Eventually Waters moved to Chicago, where he helped develop the unique "Chicago Blues" style, merging the popular jazz of the day with traditional Delta blues from the South. The story is lyrically told with a lilting cadence by debut author Mahin. His descriptions are vivid (the "sound of the delta, buzzing and mad like an angry hornet's nest looking for a fight"), and his explanations of blues music are simple and accessible. Turk's mixed-media illustrations leap off the page. His folk-art images weave together painting with newspaper clipping collages, pastel lines, and ink prints to create a truly recognizable style, rich with color and texture. Music is portrayed in abstract patterns and zigzag lines, and the soul of the blues sings out through the pages. VERDICT A worthy addition to biography collections, shedding light on an important figure in U.S. music history.--Clara Hendricks, Cambridge Public Library, MA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly

Born McKinley Morganfield, the boy who would become guitarist Muddy Waters embraced the blues from an early age, even if the grandmother who raised him didn't approve: "Last I checked, you can't eat the blues for breakfast." Debut author Mahin's dialogue is invented, but it paints a vivid picture of Waters's determination to make it as a blues musician, eventually leaving his sharecropping life in Mississippi for Chicago. Like Waters's music after landing in the Windy City, Turk's artwork is electric--wild strokes of marker and oil pastel vibrate with energy. And Mahin's equally vivid writing will almost certainly send readers after Waters's catalogue: "It felt honest and raw. It felt real. It felt like the past and the future and the country and the city all rolled into one." Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Minju Chang, Bookstop Literary. Illustrator's agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Sept.)

Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

* "The words and pictures here mix exuberance with melancholy. Mahin's words have a beat all their own, capturing the lows and highs with poetic verve. Turk's watercolor, ink, and collage artwork fills pages, exploding with a neon intensity—the equivalent of a dynamic guitar riff . . . Read the book, then get kids the music."—Booklist, Starred Review "July 2017"
Michael Mahin
Michael Mahin has loved music since his grandmother gave him his first piano lesson at the age of five. Like Carlos Santana, he believes that music fills the world with magic and love and feeling and healing. He is the author of Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters and enjoys writing books about people who use their creativity to make the world a better place. He lives in San Diego, California, with his wife, two kids, and several guitars he wishes he played better. Visit him at MichaelMahin.com.

Evan Turk is an Ezra Jack Keats Award-winning illustrator, author, and animator. He is the author-illustrator of The Storyteller, Heartbeat, You Are Home: An Ode to the National Parks, A Thousand Glass Flowers, and Hello, Moon and the illustrator of Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters, which was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book; The People's Painter; Grandfather Gandhi; and its companion Be the Change. Originally from Colorado, Evan now lives in southern California with his husband and two cats. He is a graduate of Parsons School of Design. Visit him at EvanTurk.com.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9781481443494
Lexile Measure
620
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date
September 20, 2017
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF007050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Cultural Heritage
JNF007040 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Music
JNF036000 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Music | General
Library of Congress categories
United States
Blues musicians
Muddy Waters
Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award
New York Times Best Illustrated Book
2017

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