Mary's Idea

Two-time Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka captures the sound, passion, innovation, and love of the arts that the renowned jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams shared with the world. Marys Idea is a stunning and transporting picture book about music and the creative process, for readers of Trombone Shorty and Chris Raschkas acclaimed books about musicians, including Charlie Parker Played Be Bop and Mysterious Thelonious. At the age of three, Mary Lou Williams taught herself how to play the piano. At the age of fifteen, she was considered a professional. An American jazz pianist and composer, Mary Lou Williams wrote hundreds of compositions, recorded hundreds of songs, and wrote arrangements for musicians, including Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. Marys Idea is an exquisite picture book about Mary Lou Williams, an artist often overlooked in the canon of American music because of her gender and skin color. With a text full of rhythm and movement and illustrations that sing off the page, Chris Raschkas picture book is equal parts biography and celebration of the imagination, ideas, and creative process. Marys Idea will find readers in fans of Traci N. Todds and Christian Robinsons Nina, and Brian Selznicks and Pam Muoz Ryans When Marian Sang. Includes backmatter.