ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
BIOGRAPHIES
Flack, Roberta , Bolden, Tonya

The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music

40 pp. | Random/Schwartz | January, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9780593479872 $18.99 | Library ISBN 9780593479889 $21.99 | Ebook ISBN 9780593479896 $11.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Hayden Goodman. This engaging picture-book memoir by multiple-Grammy-winner Flack, known for such 1970s megahits as "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Killing Me Softly with His Song," opens with young Roberta's early childhood. She describes it as filled with musical inspirations (her parents played harmonica and organ; she listened to classic songs on the radio) and dominated by her love of the piano and the dream of owning one. Flack's story finds its focus when her daddy brings home a piano from a junkyard ("old, beat-up, weather-worn, faded...and it stank!"), cleans it up, tunes it, and paints it green. Flack's delight in making music is at the center of the story, as she describes the joy she takes at playing her piano and her hours and hours of practice, with her success as an adult musician shown only briefly as the "­bigger dream" that her dedication made possible. That delight in making music is evident throughout in ­Goodman's gouache illustrations, which show Flack's face shining ecstatically when she plays; Goodman fills those pages with joyful green swirls, as if the essence of that beloved green piano is escaping into the air. An author's note from Flack adds more details and a list of career highlights completes the book.
Reviewer: Laura Koenig | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

RELATED 

BIOGRAPHIES

Saving American Beach
by King, Heidi Tyline
BIOGRAPHIES

Violet and Daisy
by Miller, Sarah
BIOGRAPHIES

Notes from a Young Black Chef
by , Onwuachi, Kwame & Stein, Joshua David
BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Fauci
by Messner, Kate
BIOGRAPHIES

Indelible Ann
by Browne, Meghan P.
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?