I See the Rhythm

by Toyomi Igus, Michele Wood (Illustrator)

A visual and poetic introduction to the history of African-American music takes youngsters from the roots of black music in Africa through the development of Southern plantation work songs, New Orleans jazz, the Harlem Savoy Club, and more.

Genres: Picture Books, Poetry, Music, History, Nonfiction, Childrens, African American

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Toyomi Igus has had a rich and varied writing and communications career. Born Toyomi Lynn Gibson in Iowa City, Iowa, the first child of four from her African American father and Japanese mother, she grew up in Buffalo, New York, and went on to college at Barnard College, Columbia University. After college Igus dove into consumer and trade magazine publishing as an acquiring editor and managing editor, and then on into academic book publishing, revamping and managing the publications unit of the Center for African American Studies at UCLA. Under her editorship, the press produced several books on the African diaspora, including Wilfred Cartey’s Whispers from the Caribbean, Trevor Purcells’ Banana Fallout: Class, Color and Culture Among West Indians in Costa Rica, and the final volume of St. Clair Drake’s Black Folk Here and There. While at UCLA, Igus co-wrote, edited and curated Life in a Day of Black L.A., a collection of photographs of contemporary African-American life by Southern Californian black photographers, a traveling exhibition and book.

Igus published her first children’s book in 1991. To date she has authored six children books, including When I Was Little and Great Women in the Struggle (Just Us Books); Going Back Home (Childrens’ Book Press), winner of the American Book Award and the Skipping Stones Honor, and I See the Rhythm (Childrens’ Book Press), winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, Multicultural Children�s Book Award, and the Jane Addams Picture Book Award, and her very personal Two Mrs. Gibsons (Childrens’ Book Press), which remains on educational recommended book lists around the country.

Reviews

[Ama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems filled with lyrical sampling a from notable songs are artfully accompanied by paintings portraying sections of musical history. A stunning history of the African American influence on music through the past few hundred years.

[James Govednik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! This book scores on all levels. The poetry, the paintings, the historical notes included along the way—all working together. The book tells the story of African American music, beginning 500 years ago. Artist Michele Wood created paintings for each era while listening to the music, and then Toyomi Igus listened to the music while looking at the paintings and wrote poetry for each one. The reader is served a delicious treat of a painting on one side of the spread and a poem on the other. Informational text along the margins completes the feast. I read the book without any of the music handy, but the powerful combination of the paintings and poetry summoned the music internally. The poems are primarily free verse, with a variety of poetic elements interwoven in each one. Following the example of the colorful paintings, Igus’s poems are visual treats, through her use of a variety of fonts and text colors, and creative visual layouts of the text. Africa, Slave Songs, Blues, Ragtime, Jazz, Swing, Jazz Women, Be Bop, Cool Jazz, Gospel, Rhythm & Blues, Black Rock, Funk, Rap, Hip Hop—if you read this with the music playing, you may never want to stop. For ages 10 and up.

[Yesenia Sepulveda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This extraordinary book of poetry, enticing African illustrations, and history is a must read for all. Not only does it teach you about the history of African Americans but it allows readers to connect with it as well. Toyomi Igus writes poetry about the history of African American music, which we can all relate to. Each page includes beautiful pictures inviting readers to turn the page and want to see more. The visions of the history of African Americans in our country is creatively depicted. Each illustration includes a caption involving history and a timeline on each page! Children are sure to be lured into reading this book, learning about African American history and appreciating it. For African American children, it may make them feel proud of their accomplishments and culture.

[Robyn Simmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells about the history of music throughout Black History. It explains the Harlem Renaissance period in New York. It also tells about the Be Bop style of music that was played by men wearing zoot suits. On each page of the book, there is a timeline of events that occurred in balck history. This book touches on musical attributes ranging from Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong's Jazz Era to the importance of Gospel. This book is a great addition to the classroom because it helps to incorporate music and history.

[Kendra Thiry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Igus uses the movement of music and beautiful colors to portray sound and emotions. The music and art conveyed on each page transports you back to a different time. There’s church music and street music and it’s almost as if you can hear all of it through the illustrations and poetry throughout this book. This book truly salutes the great musicians of the best era of jazz. Living in New Orleans, truly made me appreciate this book even more. It's no wonder it won the Caldecott Medal.

[Marissa Ocampo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great compilation of the history of African and African American roots in music. This nonfiction book is beautifully composed much like the music it is referencing. The paintings by Michele Wood can be artwork all on its own, but when accompanied with the historic timelines and the poetry written by Toyomi Igus, it is a masterpiece for all ages.

[Tippy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really does have everything! Its main theme is the history of black music, with tidbits of historical context for each major musical movement. Colorful illustrations and text font/color/ size variety make it visually interesting.

I read this book as part of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards 50th anniversary challenge promoted through the LA Public Libraries.

[Kevin Morillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is quite an important book, especially for me, since music with African roots has always been important to me. Some of the best genres of music were born from it.

It was filled with a lot of historical references and great and important song recommendations.

Short, and easy enough to read.

[Skylar Jerkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book combines poetry and art to trace the history of African American music. The rhythmic text and bold illustrations capture the energy of jazz, blues, gospel, and hip-hop. It’s both educational and inspiring, showing children how music reflects culture and history. A great resource for integrating arts and social studies in the classroom.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the coolest little free library find I've come across!

There are so many layers to this book: Michele Wood's beautiful paintings, which she created after conducting interviews and while listening to the music of each era; Toyomi Igus's ekphrastic poems inspired by those paintings, which describe the emotional origins and intents of each style and sprinkle in the names of major contributors; summaries of each type of music that occasionally point out features in the paintings and cite any lyrics quoted in the poems so that a reader could go look up the songs; timelines running across each page highlighting key moments in African American history and music, not giving up the former to focus comfortably (for a white audience) on the latter; and an interactive element in Wood's hidden self-portrait on every page.

It sounds like a lot, but the page layout is never overwhelming: pictures take up one full page, while the text of the poetry on the opposite page is large enough to clearly show that it's the main feature. The text is laid out in a variety of font types and sizes, even directions, but all are clear and easy to read and follow from one line to the text. The summaries are tucked up top just across the gutter from the paintings, while the timeline runs along the bottom of the page, both in small but clear font that doesn't distract from the poetry.

Beautiful, informative, fun to read...is there anything this book isn't? And kids could grow into it, focusing on the poetry and pictures until they're old enough to be interested in the timelines.

[June Pecchia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I urge adults to delve into this beautifully created "picture book" about Jazz. Read it with and to younger people. Discuss. There's a lot here in few words and raucous images.

Here's a Utube video put together by a fifth grader teacher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyb8s...

Dense with beauty and pain and joy... I want to continue reading this gorgeous-in-word-and-image book slowly. Today I stopped at "Birth of the Blues", only the third era illuminated in this heartfelt ode to African American music. I want to let all those visual and word and heart images settle within me.

As I continue to drink in the vivid and lively art that fits the story of jazz so well, I find myself googling so many names of men and women, events and eras referred to in the timelines. It's easy to move from one wikipedia page to the next in pursuit of the fuller story of African Americans from Civil War to twentieth century. So many things of which I have only tangential knowledge... so much perseverance by African Americans to get to where we all are today in America. And today in America race relations still have far to go before all Americans perceive ourselves as one people.

This is an outstanding book- art book - poetry book - music book -for anyone's library, especially our classroom libraries.

[Emily Moog · Rating 3 out of 5]

I See the Rhythm, written by Toyomi Igus and illustrated by Michele Wood is a timeline history of African and African American music. Beginning in the early 1500’s, this book summarizes important musical, societal, and historical events pertaining to those of African descent. There are poems on each page depicting the type of music being played during that time. The pictures that accompany these poems and historical dates depict the times in which the music was played. The beautiful paint strokes contain lively colors showing the smooth characters of jazz and extravagant dresses of women dancing to ragtime. Blues, purples, and greens are seen in the faces and bodies of people to add dimension and shading, but to keep the dark colored skin of the African American people. These added colors set Michele Wood apart from other illustrators by showing creativity and giving perspective. This book provides an interesting way to incorporate history, art, and music to a classroom. A teacher could play an excerpt from each period of music for children, to introduce them to other cultures and forms of art. Though I See Rhythm is primarily a historical look at the development of African and African American music, the benefits sweep through multiple subjects and thought.

[Prachi]

This book takes the reader on a journey on the evolution of black sound. By that I mean from African rhythms to hip hop today. The book also gives specific years and what came out when and the impact of it. I appreciate this, I learned a lot. This book tells the story of sound with some spunk. The illustrations were amazing. I especially liked the ones for the blues era. It is justified it won the Coretta Scott Award.

The structure of this book was super interesting, I never read a book like this before. It has everting. It is technically a non fiction book but the information is displayed creatively; each page has amazing illustrations with informative text on the side that helps grasp the timeline of the music evolution.
I think books like this are super important to highlight the history of music from an African American lens. Black people were the creators of rock and roll not Elvis Presley. Things such as this are neglected because history is usually told from a white perspective. I feel like young black children reading this can feel represented and learn cool facts about their people and culture.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I See the Rhythm
By Toyomi Igus
Copyright- 1999
Pages- 32
** Coretta Scott King Award * Illustrator*

I See the Rhythm is a very inspiring book. The paintings done by Michele Wood are amazing and really provide meaning to the information. The text tells about the history of African Americans in the last 500 years, especially their style of music. The book is written in a poetry style while providing a timeline on the side or bottom of the page. The timeline is important in the book because it shows the reader what was going on in African American history when certain types of music originated. For example, it tells about the beginning of the blues due to the work African Americans had to do on the railroad. I enjoyed this book a lot. It had detailed information in the timeline and would be a good book for students in the intermediate levels of school. It has a lot of information and could be overwhelming to younger grades, but overall the book is powerful and has a strong meaning to the reader. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars!

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

1st grade - 4th grade

I really enjoyed this book because of the striking paintings, the stylish, poetic text and the tie in with history. This book is an excellent read and very easy to throw emotion into the text, if you are reading aloud. The pictures might not captivate the younger audience because they are not realistic, but very stylistic. A younger reader might miss the point of the style in the art and just see it as sloppy. However having heard each of the styles of music described in the book it is easy to see why Michele Wood chose the unique styles for each page. I gave it a 5 mainly because I love the style of the book and I am a music lover, however this book might not receive the same rating from everyone.

Language Arts/ Music/ History/ Fine Arts

Lesson Plan: This book would be great in conjunction with a U. S. history lesson. The explanation of the musical roots is wonderful and would be good to help illustrate history in America.

[Leah Gerber · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are extremely colorful and vibrant. Wood uses blue, orange, purple, red, green, etc. There are also many different patterns and textures. The words also have color and different sizes. The characters have brightly painted faces, but their faces are not very clear and kind of distorted. This book really captures the musical rhythm and feel with bright splashes of color and the setting takes place where the music is played showing the different instruments that they are using too. It won the Coretta Scott King Award. This is for elementary students. In the classroom, I would use this book to spark interest in African American culture and music, then as a class we could make our own music that is like this. We could also watch videos of these people making this music and show the children how much they can relate to it and how it makes them feel.

Igus, T. (2005). I see the rhythm (M. Wood, Illustrator). New York, NY: Children’s Book Press.

[Jesse McMorris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see rhythm is by Toyomi igus and the illustrations are by Michele Wood. This was more of a history book for the sounds and rhythm of black music starting with African music and slave music and ending with rap and hip hop. The author gave praise to those that started the music in that certain time period. The illustrations were bright and colorful but didn’t have another dimension with this they made the music also come to life in the pictures. Thus the “I See Rhythm” became the title. This book was great because it celebrated black music the right way. I would use this book in a classroom because it could be used to help teach poems and even things that happened in this era of the world. I really liked the colors of the illustartions that is what standed out a lot. The history in this book was great to read.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written by Toyomi Igus, and illustrated by Michele Wood, I see the rhythm illustrates both through the captivating drawings, and historical text. The book explains the origins of African American music to have African roots all the way back to the 1500’s. They talk about the birth of various different styles and eras of music. Through drawings, the emotions that were experienced through different eras of music are portrayed better than words could describe. With that said however, the book does a good job of accompanying the illustrations with background knowledge that explains the significance of each genre of music that has originated from African American culture. This book would be an excellent resource for research projects, or for anyone looking to know more about their cultures history.

[Erin Haff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poetic telling of the history behind African American music is a well-deserving recipient of the Coretta Scott King Medal Award. Written in verse and popping with descriptive language, this story is meant for sharing with others. It is a good choice for an interactive read-aloud, because it includes real people from American history who were forerunners of the evolution of African American music. It is a colorful way to introduce various genres of music that have been born in America. I would certainly introduce this book during African American history month. The illustrator, Michele Wood, incorporates images and colors that bring the music and history to life. This is definitely one to read and share with others.

[Lily Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I See the Rhythm by Toyomi Igus displays the evolution of African American music through the pains of slavery and into present-day civil rights issues. I would have to conclude that overall this book would be effective in drawing the attention of young audiences. I specifically was drawn to the beautiful pictures. These beautiful illustrations also were effective in describing how society had done great injustice to African American people. Toyomi Igus used a poetry style that effectively connected the words within the poetry, to the picture which I thought was interesting. Overall I would highly recommend this book. It does a great job at describing the history that comes with African American music and can aid audiences in gaining an appreciation for the music of other cultures.

[John Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I See the Rhythm was written Toyomi Igus and had paintings done by Michele Wood. This story was a sort-of timeline for the progression of African American music. Each section represented a different style of music in history and each picture told a new, unique story. Some images depicted men and women waiting to go into a music hall, others showed the traditional African instruments and costumes, and others still portrayed actual musicians. Wood used a variety of colors and shapes throughout the story, and this aided the text very well. I See the Rhythm would be a good book to have for those students who enjoy music and its history, but not one to use in a reading lesson.

[Alli Kingsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book undoubtedly has the rhythm of which its namesake holds. The illustrator works with the author to create a visual timeline of hundreds of years of African American past. The text rises and falls with the reader, depicting the mood of every craft mentioned. Through all time, the theme of music and its power reigns supreme. The book earned its Coretta Scott King award for the paintings that have as much music as the jazz itself. This story does not hold to a formal arrangement, as the text has become as much art as the illustrations, and vice versa. It culminates together in a story for the ages, through the ages.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a must read for all. It is a wonderful story about African Americans and their music through the eyes of the author.

The illustrations in this book are fantastic. They look like they are all painted on a canvas. They have bright colors and the illustrator has paid great attention to detail. The pictures go with the story, which is written in a poem form, and each page has a picture that compliments what the author is trying to portray. If this book did not have any words, there would still be a story that anyone could interpret.

[Kiya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is about the history of African American music during a period of slavery 1861 showing a series of historical events and connecting them to music for instance gospel with church and the Harlem Renaissance with swing. The illustrations of this book is watercolors that are vibrant and colorful with different patterns and textures the characters have brightly painted faces that are a little distorted. Like most Coretta Scott King books you could read this book during a lesson on civil rights.

[Tanaia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book because it is lettings children understand what music was before they were born. It is giving them the types of different music and people that sang these songs before. These books are interesting because the children are learning new things about the different kinds of music. The illustrations in this book is very nice. The pictures are painted and very different from other books. The painting in the book some people don't have their faces painted such as eyes and mouths. The book is a good book for children to have a better understanding of other cultured music.

[Anna Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

I revisit "I see the Rhythm" every year to have a glorious uplifting experience. We met Michele Wood around 2008 at a trip through Savannah on our way to a technical convention. Her work is provocative and gorgeous. Savannah does a great job in encouraging the arts. Michele's inscription "Remember to Sing Your Song." I recommend this to every public library and elementary school. A masterful job to incorporate history of African Americans in the US with the songs that we have embraced and sing.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Coretta Scott King Award winner is multicultural/international and poetic. It tells the history of African Americans and the history of jazz/blues/funk/hiphop music. It is a piece of historical fiction, but it has a historic timeline that accompanies the story. This could be used for any history or music class. Themes include poetry, history, and music. The format is a bit busy and cluttered.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I See the Rhythm (Paperback)
by Toyomi Igus
used in a music class to talk about contributions of african americans and music in the united states this poetic book is amazing for showing in verse how the music was influenced, I wished they had more on the modern music forms since they too were inspired, and the kids just wanted to hear about music they knew.

[Lydia Frenzel]

Just wonderfully delight! Combination of bright illustrations and serious dialogue o the history of African American music evolution and contributions. Perfect for every elementary school, public libraries, and for "Black Lives Matter" forums.
I read this book about twice a year.

[Nakia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was looked at as a poemic book, by me.