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Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters

Born into an area rife with poverty and racism in the Mississippi Delta, Muddy Waters could count on two things in his life: his Grandma Della, and music. Muddy loved the music he heard in church on Sundays, but his favorite was “fish-fry music,” “shake off the dust / and wring out your worries / and laugh and cry and feel alive music.” Muddy loved the blues. After leaving his “back- busting, soul-breaking” job as a sharecropper, Muddy moved to Chicago to make music. He was told he needed to incorporate more jazz into his style, but he stuck with what he knew and brought “the sound of the Delta” to the big city. As it turned out, people in Chicago couldn’t get enough of Muddy’s blues. After a few false starts in the recording business, a record producer gave Muddy a chance to record his own music, his own way, and it was a hit. Muddy was on his way to becoming one of the greatest blues musicians the world has ever known. Bright, bold illustrations against a black background, and an inventive, evocative choice of descriptive words, set the tone and conjure up the sound of the blues in this picture book biography. ©2017 Cooperative Children's Book Center

Illustrated by Evan Turk

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 7-10
Age Range: PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7) Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Formats: Biography, Autobiography and Memoir Picture book
Subjects: African Americans Biography Creativity Economic Hardship and Poverty Music and Musicians Perseverance
Diversity subject: Black/African

Publisher: Atheneum
Publish Year: 2017
Pages: 48
ISBN: 9781481443494

CCBC Location: Non-Fiction, 782 Mahin