Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix

Golio, Gary, Steptoe, Javaka, Jimi: Sounds like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix, Clarion Books, 2010, 32 pgs.

Summary: This is an illustrated biography of Jimi Hendrix when he was a young boy. Jimi grew up in Seattle, Washington and first was a painter. He loved to paint and also enjoyed making different sounds with what he had. He found that sounds carried colors and dreamed of having a guitar of his own so that he could make colors blend together. He got his first guitar from his landlady’s son and fell in love with the different sounds and noises he could make. He would get together with his friends and make different types of music inspired by the blues music his father listened to. One day, while playing with a live band, Jimi felt that his music was getting lost. So his father purchased him a very cheap electric guitar and Jimi really began to make music! Sadly Jimi Hendrix died at the very young age of 27 from a combination of prescription drugs and alcohol. The end of this book includes resources for teaching middle schools about the dangers of drinking alcohol.

Evaluation: I found this to be a very engaging and informative book. The illustrations are unique and have a very blues feel to them. I would imagine that this is what blues and art would look like together. I liked that there was a wrap up of information at the end which allowed me to get the whole picture of the life of Jimi Hendrix.

Annotation: His paintbrush was a guitar and his paints were sounds.

Significance of Book: I found this book to be significant because of the resources in the back for alcoholism and the use of basically captioned pictures to tell a story.

Genre/subject: biography, music

Awards:

National:

• Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Books: 2011

Why I selected the book: I was intrigued by the telling of a biography in a picture book format. Also the cover is really attractive.

Price: $16.99