The Jazz Fly: Starring the Jazz Bugs [With CD] - Hardcover

"This story portrays jazz as freedom to experiment with sounds and to think creatively. Beautifully illustrated, and with a great CD, this gets our vote for the best new book for children of all ages!" --Children's Book Sense 76, the newsletter of independent booksellers nationwide

"The art of improvisation, exuberantly explicated, introduces the American musical form." --Smithsonian's Notable Books for Children

"Jazz Fly sits down at his drums and begins to play, incorporating the animal sounds into his music to great audience response." --Booklist

"The rhyming text includes scat refrains like "ZA-baza, BOO-zaba, ZEE-zah RO-ni" that just beg to be read aloud...The illustrations and book design give the whole enterprise the feel of jazz, even without musical accompaniment. The accompanying CD is delightful. Gollub narrates with a jazzy beat, and the danceable music perfectly accentuates the story. Children will love hearing this book read aloud and imitating the animal sounds and other refrains. A natural for storytimes." --School Library Journal

"An accessible introduction to jazz quartets, scatting and improvisation. It's a cool package." --San Francisco Chronicle Editors' Picks

While seeking directions to town, a fly picks up the rhythm of the answers he gets from a frog, a hog, a donkey, and a dog, and then uses these sounds to jazz up his band's music.