When Bob Met Woody

March 14, 2011
How do you explain Bob Dylan to a generation raised on Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber? With lyrical, plainspoken writing that echoes folk music itself, Golio (Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow) portrays the young Dylan as a teenager driven by both his music ("He'd fall asleep with the guitar in his lap, and he'd even forget to bathe or brush his teeth") and his sense of alienation ("Teased for being Jewish, for being different, Bob kept his angry feelings locked inside"). Dylan's determination to find a "bigger, brighter world" and his belief that Guthrie and his music are "the North Star" gives the narrative momentum that propels the story to its final pages, where an ailing Guthrie gives the young troubadour his blessing. Burckhardt's (Daddy Loves His Little Girl) crackle-texture, generously scaled acrylics mix stirring portraiture with murallike iconography (a Guthrie LP rises like a sun from the rolling Minnesota hills). Although this book is probably best enjoyed in the presence of a grown-up Dylan fan, children should come away understanding that not every performer needs spectacle to make an indelible impression. Ages 8â12.

April 1, 2011
Golio (Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix, 2010) produces another sensitively written, meticulously researched picture biography, this time capturing the intense ambition of the young Bob Dylan. Born Robert Zimmerman in Minnesota in 1941, Bob's coming of age as a small-town Jewish boy trod the converging paths of the folk, blues and rock scenes. Bob challenged authority by listening to and playing music that bucked his family's and community's status quo. The chance to meet his hospital-ridden hero, Woody Guthrie, forms the text's dramatic hook: Bob hitch-hiked east to connect with his hero and his own complex musical destiny. Golio acknowledges Dylan's penchant for self-invention without disparaging it; his high-road approach lends the narrative a distinct kind-heartedness. (In a thoughtful note, the author articulates his approach to teasing out what "rang true" from contradictory research on Dylan and his peers.) Burckhardt's accomplished acrylics combine a warm, Americana-soaked palette with heroic compositions: In one spread, a Woody Guthrie record rises like a sun. Quotations sprinkled throughout the text are scrupulously annotated. Well done. (afterword, sources & resources) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 1, 2011
Grades 3-5 These days Dylan is hardly an Everyman, but the story of his youth is filled with the kind of alienation and passion that young readers know better than anyone. Growing up in Minnesota as Bob Zimmerman, the future superstar dreamed of joining the voices of Muddy Waters and Hank Williams that he heard on the radio, when all he saw around him were small-business owners and miners. But no one spoke to him like folksinger Woody Guthrie. Hearing that Guthrie lay sick in a New York hospital, Dylan hitched a ride, got in to see his hero, and played a few songs. The rest is music history. Golio excels at portraying Zimmermans angst as he flounders for meaning and even invents for himself a more colorful backstory. Burckhardts acrylics have the fractured look of damaged paintings, and what they lack in energy they make up for in gravity and emotion. Back matter, including quotation sources, is superb. A stirring introduction to two music legends.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)