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Title details for Kid Sterling by Christine Welldon - Available

Kid Sterling

by Christine Welldon
ebook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Sterling Crawford is a young kid living on the streets of New Orleans. It's 1906 and he's trying to support his mother who launders clothes for white people. Sterling plays trumpet, and what he'd really like is to learn from his idol, the legendary Buddy Bolden, who is playing a new kind of music that's turning New Orleans upside down.

Historically, not only is Bolden regarded as one of the founders of American jazz, but through the pages of this vivid novel, you will discover others whose genius created modern music. The beat and the strains of jazz surged into life even while African Americans struggled against deep racial divisions of the time: curfews designed to keep Black people out of the streets, a loaded justice system, and racial barriers that divided a nation.

For Sterling, life is not easy, but in the end he finds his way in this new and challenging musical world in this richly textured story of a culture that thrives against all odds.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 27, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780889956629

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780889956629
      • File size: 1262 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      Starred review from December 1, 2020
      A young African American boy yearns to live as free as his music in the Deep South. The year is 1906, and nearly 11-year-old Sterling Crawford loves the sounds of New Orleans, especially those of his hero, top-rate trumpeter King Buddy Bolden. Even though Bolden knows Sterling as "Mirror Shine" for the expert way Sterling shines his shoes, Sterling hopes one day to follow in Buddy's footsteps and become a great "musicianer." Sterling plays tunes in the park for pennies with pals Sydney, Clancy, and his cousin Barrel. The coins help his mother pay the rent and hopefully one day nab the fancy trumpet he's been eyeing at Jake's Pawn and Loan. Sterling doesn't want to end up like his brother, Syl, working for shady gangsters and worrying their mother. But the opportunities for the son of a single washerwoman are scarce, and the heavy hand of Jim Crow pushes Sterling into situations he is unprepared to face. Welldon's early-20th-century New Orleans leaps off the pages and dances across the imagination, creating a vivid, tangible landscape, with the Louisiana heat steaming from each paragraph. Sterling's journey is common to many Black boys all over America, with dreams detoured at the whim of White people. However, Sterling's story is bracing and never without hope. A bluesy tale of talent and triumph. (Historical fiction. 12-18)

      COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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