My Hands Sing the Blues

As a young boy growing up in North Carolina, Romare Bearden listened to his great-grandmothers Cherokee stories and heard the whistle of the train that took his people to the Northpeople who wanted to be free. When Romare boarded that same train, he watched out the window as the world whizzed by. Later he captured those scenes in a famous painting, Watching the Good Trains Go By. Using that painting as inspiration and creating a text influenced by the jazz that Bearden loved, Jeanne Walker Harvey describes the patchwork of daily southern life that Romare saw out the trains window and the story of his arrival in shimmering New York City. Artists and critics today praise Beardens collages for their visual metaphors honoring his past, African American culture, and the human experience. Elizabeth Zunons illustrations of painted scenes blended with collage are a stirring tribute to a remarkable artist. My Hands Sing the Blues is the recipient of the 2012 IRA Childrens and Young Adults Book Award-Primary Nonfiction, as well as the gold winner of a Moonbeam Childrens Book Award in the category of Picture Book-All Ages.