When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat

What I try to do with reviews at this Bookshelf blog is keep it simple and spoiler-free, and let you know whether I'd recommend you pick up a copy of what I just read. Seems to work okay. This time, a brief review of When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat (Chronicle, 2008).


Since people call me a hipster dad, perhaps I'd do well to act like one every once in a while. With that in mind, here is a terrific book for parents to read to youngsters, just as soon as the moms and dads get the bubble gum out of their mouths so that they can scoobily-coobily chop-de-li-chop-li-chop-chop.

Written by Muriel Harris Weinstein and beautifully painted by R. Gregory Christie, I see this as an incredibly charming activity for parents and kids to share. It's a quite thin 32 pages, and priced pretty highly for it, but with pages so colorful and words so silly, it will inspire children to sing their own nonsense rhymes.

The book tells a little bit about Armstrong - Weinstein is also working on a proper biography of him - but mainly uses him as a character to get an elementary schooler scatting about bubble gum. With a little imagination and encouragement, and perhaps a little accompaniment from appropriate recordings, kids will be scatting about jumping rope or doing chores or whatever strikes their fancy. Happily recommended for kids aged six to ten.