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Blue grass boy: the story of Bill Monroe, father of bluegrass music
By Barb Rosenstock, Edwin Fotheringham. 2018
Presents the story of musician Bill Monroe, the youngest of eight children, who loved playing and singing harmonies with his…
family on the front porch and continued to work on his craft as he grew up. His deep Kentucky roots helped him to create the unique American music called bluegrass. For grades K-3. 2018Searching for Robert Johnson: The Life and Legend of the "King of the Delta Blues Singers"
By Peter Guralnick. 1998
Author of music biographies including Last Train to Memphis (DB 40087) examines the short life and long legacy of bluesman…
Johnson, who died at age twenty-seven in 1938. From scarce information, the author stitches together what is known of his life, and looks at the many blues musicians he influenced. 1989The Hatbox Letters
By Beth Powning. 2021
In this beautiful and deeply moving novel, a young widow struggles to come to terms with her solitary life in…
the rambling Victorian house she shared until recently with her husband and children in semi-rural New Brunswick.It is in this house, surrounded by heirloom gardens and the gentle sounds of a river, that Kate Harding, 52, faces her second winter since the untimely death of her husband. Her children, now grown, are living away, and Kate is truly on her own. In her living room are several hatboxes filled with letters and other ghostly ephemera, recently brought by her sister from the attic of their grandparents’ 18th-century Connecticut house. Their sweet mustiness tinges the air and makes Kate dream of her childhood and of her beloved grandparents. She remembers the sense of permanence and refuge that she felt in their apple-scented world, as well as, more recently, with her husband. As she begins to read the hatbox letters, she discovers that what to a child seemed a serene and blissful marriage was in fact founded on a tragic event. As Kate’s eyes clear to the truth of the past, a new tragedy unfolds, and her own house, filled with the shared detritus of marriage and motherhood, becomes the refuge where Kate can connect the strands of her unravelled life.In The Hatbox Letters — which is both sad and exhilarating, touching and illuminating — Beth Powning offers readers an unforgettable story of love, grief and renewal, both past and present, as well as her extraordinary perceptions of the natural world.Excerpt from The Hatbox LettersThe birds rise with a muted thunder, their wings serrate the light. For an instant, a peregrine falcon zigzags through the flock. Then it drops from the belly of the rising bird-cloud. In its talons is a sandpiper, crumpled like a ball of paper. It is hard to decide which drama to observe, the escape of the falcon with its prey or the flock’s display as the birds rush seaward like a single entity, a ballooning flame that rises and falls, expands and implodes, one instant silver and the next black. The flock speeds back towards the beach, passes close to the watchers, makes a dazzling turn, fast as thought. Then, with a diminishing roar, the birds waver, their legs drop, stretch. They touch down. They fluff their feathers, Kate observes, the way humans pull coats up around necks after a shock. Trying to put ourselves back as we were.Falling out of time
By David Grossman. 2014
Walking Man announces to his wife that he is setting out in search of their son, who has died. As…
Walking Man travels, other townspeople join him in search of their own loved ones. They all question whether death is truly the end of a person. Translated from Hebrew. 2014How they croaked: the awful ends of the awfully famous
By Georgia Bragg, Kevin O'Malley. 2011
Guide to the deaths of nineteen notable people begins with King Tut, who died of malaria. Also covers King Henry…
VIII, whose corpse exploded; George Washington; Marie Curie, who literally worked to death; and Albert Einstein. Includes facts, oddities, and resources. Some violence. For grades 5-8 and older readers. 2011Go, cat, go!: the life and times of Carl Perkins, the king of rockabilly
By Carl Perkins, David McGee. 1996
Autobiography of Carl Perkins following his life and career from 1932 through the 1990's. Carl Perkins, one of the original…
pioneers of rock, is famous for writing "Blue Suede Shoes" and performing with Elvis and Johnny Cash as they toured on behalf of Sun Records during the heyday of rockabilly. 1996Dirt road: A Novel
By James Kelman. 2016
The story of a teenage boy, who travels with his father from Scotland to Alabama to visit with relatives after…
the death of his mother and sister, and becomes swept up into the world of zydeco and bluesWhen Paul met Artie: the story of Simon & Garfunkel
By G. Neri, David Litchfield, Greg Neri. 2018
When Paul Met Artie is a picture book aimed at young readers from grades 4 to 7. From childhood friendship…
to brief teenage stardom, from early failures to musical greatness -- the incredible story of how Simon & Garfunkel became a cherished voice of their generation. For grades 4-7Piano starts here: the young Art Tatum
By Robert Andrew Parker, Robert A. Parker. 2008
Drum dream girl: how one girl's courage changed music
By Margarita Engle, Rafael López. 2015
In Cuba in the 1930s, music filled the air. Millo had a dream playing drums of all kinds, but the…
country and her father only permitted boys to play drums. Millo finds a way to drum and practices in secret. Eventually her father relents and hires a music teacher for her. Millo's persistance means that she and her sisters become the first all-girl dance band in Cuba and play with and for famous people. (Story inspired by the childhood of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga.) For grades K-3Woolgathering
By Patti Smith. 2011
Becoming Billie Holiday
By Carole Boston Weatherford, Floyd Cooper. 2008
Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday (1915-1959) reflects on her early years in this fictional memoir written in verse. In "I Can't…
Face the Music" Billie overcomes stage fright. In "Trav'lin' Light," her songs are her home. Some violence and some strong language. For senior high readers. Coretta Scott King Honor. 2008Dancing in the street: confessions of a Motown diva
By Mark Bego, Martha Reeves. 1994
Autobiography of African American lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas, who recorded hit songs for Motown in the 1960s.…
Reeves recalls the inner workings of the Detroit record studio, reminisces about her fellow musicians, and discusses her rivalry with Diana Ross of the Supremes. Some strong language. 1994Mummies: the newest, coolest, and creepiest from around the world
By Shelley Tanaka. 2005
Discusses the ways cultures in various climates and time periods have preserved the dead. Describes the process of mummification in…
the Andes mountains and dry deserts of South America, the Egyptian desert, glaciers of Canada and Italy, European peat bogs, Siberian ice, and Chinese sand dunes. For grades 3-6. 2005The book of rock stars: 24 musical icons that shine through history
By Kathleen Krull, Stephen Alcorn. 2003
Handel, who knew what he liked
By Kevin Hawkes, Matthew Anderson, M. T Anderson, M. T. Anderson. 2001
A stubborn little boy with a mind of his own is determined to be a musician, even though his father…
is against the idea. He grows up to be the famous eighteenth-century composer, George Frideric Handel. For grades 3-6. 2001Jewel: pieces of a dream
By Kristen Kemp, Kemp. 1998
Biography of songwriter-singer Jewel, who grew up in Alaska with no running water, electricity, or heat. Describes her early singing…
career, her struggles with dyslexia, and her parents' divorce. Jewel's determination to succeed led her to a famous boarding school for the arts and then to California. For junior and senior high readersBetween each line of pain and glory: my life story
By Gladys Knight. 1997
Knight recalls the ups and downs of her life. She describes her struggle to become well known, first along with…
the Pips and later as a solo performer, and discusses her family, her various addictions, her failed marriages, and her feelings of isolation within the world of show businessBill Wyman: stone alone : the story of a rock 'n' roll band
By Ray Coleman, Bill Wyman. 1990
The Rolling Stones's bass player has kept a scrapbook of press clippings and a diary for almost thirty years. Now…
he has trunkloads of these bits and pieces to jog his memory about the band's rise to stardom. Known as "the silent Stone," Wyman focuses on the 1960s, when the band served its tumultuous apprenticeship, but he goes on to document the less than sanguine years that followedOn our own: independent living for older persons (Golden Age Bks.)
By Ursula A Falk, Falk, Ursula A. Falk. 1989
Americans cherish their independence, and so it is difficult when age raises the spectre of dependence. Falk suggests ways in…
which older people can continue to live successfully on their own. She outlines meal programs, alternative living arrangements, family support systems, leisure activities, and employment opportunities. 1989