Nina: Jazz Legend and Civil-Rights Activist Nina Simone

Gr 3-5--Less a biography than a meditation, Briere-Haquet's take on Nina Simone is structured as a bedtime story told by the legendary musician to her daughter. In lyrical prose, the book reflects on Simone's early musical education and racial awareness as they grow hand in hand. From the black-and-white keys of the piano to the divisions that young Simone experienced among white and black people in her community, the book frames Simone's career as a mission to make "the notes...mingle and dance together in the air so these lies would disappear," erroneously asserting that "Music has no color." The telling abruptly shifts from Simone's early life to the influence of Martin Luther King Jr., whose dream is described as "my symphony. Black and white people...together in the big dance of life." Simone cautions that "the dream is fragile" and the book ends where it began, the singer lulling her daughter to sleep. As a firm but oversimplified telling, the text leaves something to be desired. In addition, though the illustrations are gently fantastical, Liance's choice to portray Simone as a light skinned, almost white, figure is deeply problematic. VERDICT An ambitious though unsuccessful work.--Katya Schapiro, Brooklyn Public Library