Sweethearts of Rhythm : The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World

by Nelson, Marilyn; Pinkney, Jerry

• ISBN13: 9780803731875
• ISBN10: 0803731876
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-29
• Publisher: Dial

Summary

In the 1940s, as the world was at war, a remarkable jazz band performed on the American home front. This all-female band, originating from a boarding school in the heart of Mississippi, found its way to the most famous ballrooms in the country, offering solace during the hard years of the war. They dared to be an interracial group despite the cruelties of Jim Crow laws, and they dared to assert their talents though they were women in a man’s” profession. Told in thought-provoking poems and arresting images, this unusual look at our nation’s history is deep and inspiring.

Author Biography

Marilyn Nelson is a three-time National Book Award Finalist and winner of a Newbery Honor for Carver: A Life in Poems. She lives in East Haddam, Connecticut.

Jerry Pinkney has won five Caldecott Honors, five Coretta Scott King Awards and serves on the National Council on the Arts. He lives in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.