Your daughter loves to sing and loves to dance whenever she gets the chance.
But what would she do if she was told that she couldn’t perform because her skin was the wrong color? In “Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker” by Patricia Hruby Powell, one woman decides to do it anyhow.
While her Mama worked, Josephine listened to sidewalk horns and honky-tonks and “sponged up that funky music.” She loved to dance so much that she worked hard to earn pennies so she could watch “the Negro theater,” where Ma Rainey sang and others shimmied. Josephine left home at age 13 to work with the Dixie Steppers. She was just a kid, but she could help dress the dancers — and as soon as they let her, she joined the chorus line.
Josephine was finally able to dance and sing to crowds, but she still wasn’t allowed inside certain hotels or restaurants. They were for “whites only.”
When the Dixie Steppers broke up, Josephine was a long way from home in East St. Louis. She fell in love, married a man named Baker in Philadelphia, and then left him to go to Broadway, where she found fame.
But the color of her skin kept her from the kind of fame she really wanted. It was frustrating, and Josephine felt like a volcano sometimes — until she was invited to perform in “La Revue Negré” in France.
Ooh la la, the French seemed color blind! And they were wild for Josephine Baker!
And yet, there was one thing Josephine hadn’t done, and it bothered her. She hadn’t become a star back home in America. She needed to do it — but was America ready for her?
As I was reading, something tickled the back of my mind: the words.
Powell’s story is written almost like scat: quick lines, be-bopping here and shooby-loobing there, rising and falling as though Josephine Baker herself was singing the story. It’s infectious, even in the sad parts. Your little one might not notice that hoppity-bop, but once you do, you won’t be able to not see it.
I think smaller kids might enjoy this book for the artwork, but readers ages 8 to 12 will get even more out of “Josephine.” If your child’s gotta sing and gotta dance, then she’s gotta read this book, too.
“Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker,” by Patricia Hruby Powell [104 pages, 2014, $17.99].
Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.
