Dizzy, written by Jonah Winter, was illustrated by Sean Qualls and published on October 1, 2006. Intended for children in grades three through eight, Dizzy is a biographical picture book which tells the story of the life of John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie. As a child, Dizzy is bullied by bigger boys and gets beaten regularly by his father. Unable to manage his anger, he leads a rough childhood, fighting anyone who crosses his path. This changes, however, at age thirteen, when his music teacher gives him a trumpet. Using music as an outlet, and after a great deal of practice, Dizzy plays his horn with various jazz bands until he finally makes it to New York City. Perpetually seeking the limelight, Dizzy is a prankster on stage. Bored with the predictable melodies of “swing,” he begins to break all the rules; playing notes and riffs that no one has ever heard. Dizzy is eventually fired from the band, giving him the freedom to work on a new style called “bebop,” which took over the jazz world by the 1950’s. Despite the fact that this is for most purposes an informational text, it does carry an underlying message for students: Dizzy’s goofy nature and tendency to break all of the rules is what ultimately makes him one of the greatest jazz musicians in history. In other words, going ‘against the grain’ will lead to major accomplishments. According to Lamme and Fu, “The issues of gender, race, culture, and class are as important to examine in informational literature as they are in fiction.”(19). This picture book, and the format in which Dizzy Gillespie’s life is presented, may generate change in how its audience views themselves.
The print in Dizzy reflects the privileged perspective of wild, exuberant men who follow their own agendas. Winter writes, “If a melody was like a rule, jazz was like breaking the rules, like inventing new rules. Jazz was like getting in trouble- it was fun!”(12). While it may be true that some seek to break rules and find trouble, this is not the case with all children. Those who try to be “good” at home, school, and elsewhere within their communities by striving to be respectful and conscientious may get the impression that this behavior is viewed as trivial, leading nowhere in life. In addition to displaying great talent for playing the trumpet, Dizzy Gillespie becomes famous by upstaging others. Winter goes on to write, “On certain nights, he’d elbow the piano man off the bench and play the keyboard with his left hand and the trumpet with his right.” Although his fellow band members do not appreciate these shenanigans, the boss replies by calling Dizzy a “Wiz”(5). When Dizzy makes it to New York City, he continues, “making funny faces, faking football passes behind the back of the bandleader while the DUDE was trying to SING, PARTLY to get a laugh, but MAINLY to get NOTICED”(6). This reinforces the idea that those who achieve great things only do so at the expense of others, and furthermore, brings to attention the absence of women in the band. Dizzy’s outlandish, self-centered actions are celebrated and even idolized towards the end of the book, when Winter states, “being a clown, breaking all the rules- had become the thing that made him great, his ticket into Jazz Heaven where, on certain nights, Dizzy Gillespie still shoves the angel Gabriel out of the way and shows him how to play Bebop”(44).
According to Kiefer, Hepler, and Hickman, “in the best picture books, the illustrations extend and enhance the written text, providing the reader with an aesthetic experience that is more than the sum of the book’s parts... both the illustrations and the text must bear the burden
of narration” (200). In considering Sean Quall’s illustrations in Dizzy, one must wonder exactly what message he is attempting to portray. He uses acrylic paint, collage, and pencil as the medium, choosing deliberate colors for specific scenes. When Dizzy is poor, living in a small southern town, the reader sees mostly beiges, browns, and blacks. As his success grows, so does the color scheme into a new world of peach, white, yellow, purple, and blue. Red is used sparingly and in the beginning, Qualls uses it to highlight the negative: red bricks in the background where Dizzy is bullied, the father standing on a red rug while he beats his son, the anger Dizzy experiences while blowing as hard as he can into his horn. Therefore, a little girl may feel uneasy when she reaches a point later on in the story where the only woman drawn in color is wearing a bright red dress and bright red shoes. The reader may comprehend women as negative, an evil presence within the text.
The privilege within Dizzy’s illustrations belongs to big-city African-American males. From start to end, this picture book features fifty-nine illustrations of men, and only eleven women. It is only men who appear onstage, despite some of the great female jazz vocalists of this time, such as Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald. It is clear, therefore, that girls are at risk of feeling marginalized by this book. The men depicted in urban cities such as Philadelphia and New York are well-dressed, dancing with women and enjoying themselves. Those illustrated back in Dizzy’s little hometown wear ragged clothing, and seem unhappy with their lot in life. These pictures may suggest to children that happiness and success can only be found in the big city. Only one page depicts people of other races in New York City. While most African-Americans in the text are illustrated in color with unique, distinctive facial characteristics, these few people are portrayed in blacks, whites, and beiges. It is difficult to determine what their backgrounds may be, as their faces are crudely drawn.
Boys who come from difficult home lives and “class clowns” would relate best to this book, mainly because these are the children who would most easily connect to Dizzy’s experiences; whether it be through an understanding of dealing with cruelty at home, or the enjoyment of stirring up trouble for laughs. While the text relates the privileged perspective of African-American males, it is this very same group that may also feel marginalized. Upon reading this story, a child may wonder if African-Americans can only escape rough beginnings by displaying some great and unusual talent. The Council on Interracial Books for Children asks, “To gain acceptance and approval, do persons of color have to exhibit extraordinary qualities - excel in sports, get As, etc.?”. In Dizzy Gillespie’s case, at least, the answer seems to be ‘yes.’ Why else would he have worked so hard to stand out onstage, to be noticed by the crowd? Yet another group who may feel left out or insulted by this text are rural and suburban children. Living in a small town is viewed as negative, and not conducive to Dizzy’s success as a human being. Jonah Winter describes Dizzy as being, “stuck inside a Podunk town,” and when he moves on, even “Philly was SMALL TIME, and Dizzy got bored”(9). This may convey the message to children that rural or suburban life is boring, meaningless, and invaluable.
Regarding my reading of Dizzy, I have encountered this text as a middle-class, caucasion, twenty-seven year old woman with little prior knowledge of jazz, or the life of John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie. Upon my first reading, I interpreted this book simply in the way I believe it was intended: as the biographical story of one of history’s great musicians. While reading it for a second, and then third time, however, I noticed that it carried a different message for me, personally. I have always known that I am living in a man’s world. Dizzy reinforces this concept through constant negligence of expressing the role of women involved in John Birk’s personal life, culture, and society. Just as Dizzy had to demonstrate extraordinary talent and qualities to escape from being left behind, forgotten, and insignificant in a small ‘podunk’ town; women will have to continue to do the same in order to rise as equals within an inequitable world. It is simply part of our culture to give men most of the power, and this fact remains blatantly uncontested across the pages of Dizzy.
While reading this text, I wonder if children’s books such as these aren’t part of the problem: boys and girls are indoctrinated into our school systems, where they encounter different stories of all sorts and genres, many of which may also carry harmful, underlying messages which push women down and lift men up. I agree with Mary Jo Fresch when she states, “Teachers, then, are charged with providing the opportunity to discuss, debate, and examine issues. They must be aware of what further exploration students might need when examining books outside their experiences”(443). As teachers of literacy, we must not allow children to feel smaller or less able based upon the texts which they experience. Our classrooms should develop critical readers, and within this process, we may discover that we are not only teachers of reading, but teachers of society, culture, life, and the world.
Works Cited
Fresch, Mary Jo. “Both Sides of the Story? Searching for Multiple Voices in Children’s Literature.” Journal for a Just and Caring Education, Vol. 2, No. 4 October 1996.
Kiefer, Barbara, Hickman, Janet, and Hepler, Susan. Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature.
McGraw-Hill Humanities, 9th Edition. 2006.
Lamme, Linda, and Fu, Danling. “Sheltering Children from the Whole Truth: A Critical Analysis of an Informational Picture Book.” Journal of Children’s Literature, Vol. 27, No. 2, Fall 2001.
The Council on Interracial Books for Children. “10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books
for Racism and Sexism.” http://www.birchlane.davis.ca.us/library/Default.htm.
Winter, Jonah. Dizzy. Arthur A. Levine Books; Library Binding edition, October 1, 2006.
