Edited by Robin C. Dietrick & Bradley S. Klein
Illustrated by Maggie Dunlap
| McCormick Book Inn Reviews |
Story by Lianne K.Takemori
Edited by Robin C. Dietrick & Bradley S. Klein
Illustrated by Maggie Dunlap
The Mississippi Museum of Art's Four Dog Blues Band is a picture storybook for kids to enjoy and for parents and educators to enjoy using.
The tale stars Chester, a Mississippi Delta hound determined to howl the blues in the Big City. Along the road to his big break at the museum of art ball, he picks up a few new friends and The Four Dog Blues Band is born to audience acclaim. 
Charming line illustrations by Maggie Dunlap (then eleven-year-olds and the daughter of artists William Dunlap and Linda Burgess) are a perfect complement to Lianne Takemori’s text. Curator of Education at the MMA, Takemori’s lively story is rooted in the Delta’s culture and takes elementary readers from flat cotton fields to the state capital’s gentle hills.
But there’s so much more to this bright book than an imaginative canine travelogue. As Chester collects his band members, it’s a counting book. As the blues band grows, it’s a book about music and instruments. For kids admiring the forty-seven pages of illustrations by such a young artist, it’s also a source of creative inspiration.
Most importantly, Four Dog Blues Band is a gloriously vivid, full color art book featuring sixteen pieces from the Mississippi Museum of Art’s summer of 2007 exhibition, "The Mississippi Story." Each featured artwork includes a short educational note – a wonderful tool for teachers and parents, whether entertaining young minds or preparing to view The Mississippi Museum of Art’s permanent collection in their newly opened facility.
The Four Dog Blues Band is as aesthetically and technically superb as any national award winning children’s book. That the story line is from the Delta and that five of the sixteen illustrating works were created by artists associated with the Delta is pure lagniappe for Deltans.
McCormick Book Inn, Inc. 2007
click on each illustration for a larger view
|
