Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane - Paperback

by Carole Boston Weatherford (Author), Sean Qualls (Illustrator)

A lyrical picture book biography of John Coltrane that focuses on his childhood.

Young John Coltrane was all ears. And there was a lot to hear, growing up in the south during the 1930s: church songs, preachers praying, music on the radio, and the bustling of the household. John was surrounded by all kinds of vivid noises that shaped his own sound as a musician. With vibrant words and glowing colors, Carole Boston Weatherford and Sean Qualls compose an amazingly rich hymn to the childhood of jazz legend John Coltrane.

Before John Was a Jazz Giant is a 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book and a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Author Biography

Carole Boston Weatherford wrote the Caldecott Honor book Moses: When Harriet Tubman Lead Her People to Freedom. She lives in North Carolina.

Sean Qualls illustrated the widely acclaimed biographies The Poet Slave of Cuba and Dizzy. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.