ALA Booklist

Young listeners will bop to the pulsating rhythm of this irresistibly sassy tribute to jazz saxophonist Parker. Chris Raschka's lean text is as mean as a blues refrain. Raschka offers some historical perspective before jazz artist Richard Allen reads the book twice, slowly and then with more pizzazz. Especially in the exhilarating second reading, listeners will feel compelled to tap their feet and swing their hands to the background music. The music, from a 1953 recording of the song A Night in Tunisia, features improvisational jazz riffs by Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and others. The book's cool-cat illustrations and word patterns help listeners swing along with the beat. An innovative read-along.

Horn Book (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Raschka has created a memorable tribute to jazz great Charlie Parker in this rhymic, syncopated, compelling, funny celebration of a man and a musical form. The brief text sings and swings and skips along, practically of its own volition, while the pictures add humor and just the right amount of jazziness to the mix. One of the most innovative picture books of recent times.

Kirkus Reviews (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

A brief, rhythmic text printed in different styles and varied with playful onomatopoeia recalls the humor and cadences of a great jazz musician: ...Charlie Parker played saxophone./The music sounded like be bop./Never leave your cat alone./Be bop./Fisk, fisk./Lollipop./Boomba, boomba./Bus stop./Zznnzznn./Boppity, bibbitty, bop. BANG!'' The equally evocative art is rendered in rough charcoal with watercolors added. Like Polacco, Raschka uses a vigorous line and angular perspectives to give his figures extraordinary energy; creating jaunty, fantastical creatures to move with the beat, he draws on Parker's nickname (Bird'') and words from his songs (e.g., lollipop'' andbus stop'' above). The musician himself is depicted as heavy-eyed and intent; the monumental, solitary cat is a powerful counterpoint. A curiosity, witty and offbeat. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 3+)"

School Library Journal (Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 CST 2023)

PreS-Gr 2-- Despite its appealing, rhythmic cadence, this book doesn't evoke the music of Charlie Parker. The watercolor and charcoal pencil illustrations are funky and funny, but sometimes confounding. In particular, the characterization of Parker is overly stylized, resulting in a caricature rather than a character. The story line--of the musician's cat waiting for him to come home--will be lost on young readers; in fact, it will be apparent only to those reading the flap copy. Nicely designed, the layout makes effective use of different typefaces and appropriate sound words (The music sounded like be bop . . . overshoes, overshoes, overshoes, o, . . . ''), but the nonsense phrases only increase the general confusion (Barbeque that last leg bone . . . .''), as do some of the illustrations, particularly a boot with feet that ``hip hops'' through the pages. There is also an upside-down illustration of Parker that looks more like a mistake than a variation on the theme. This is an intriguing, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to illuminate jazz for young readers, who would be served far better by books like Thacher Hurd's upbeat Mama Don't Allow (HarperCollins, 1984) or Rachel Isadora's Ben's Trumpet (Greenwillow, 1979). --Cyrisse Jaffee, Newton Public Schools, MA