Module 3: Picture Book 8

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Author	Carole Boston Weatherford
Title	Before John Was a Jazz Giant
Illustrator	Sean Qualls
Readability Score	Lexile Measure: AD1090L
Genre	Nonfiction
Subgenre	Biography
Theme	NA
Primary and Secondary Characters	John Coltrane
Award(s) date of publication	2008
Publishing Company	Henry Holt and Company
ISBN Number	968-0-8050-7994-4
Brief Summary	This simply written biography describes the sounds of a young John Coltrane’s environment.  The striking illustrations depict Coltrane soaking up the culture of his people through sounds which would later be reflected in his music.
Picture of book cover
Description of how you would use book with students	This book would make an excellent mentor text for modeling vivid descriptive details.  Students could attempt to write a memoir using sensory details such as those mentioned in the book.  The memoir would consist of five vignettes, all focused on memories described through the five senses.  This book would also work well for revising using onomatopoeia.  Students could add examples of onomatopoeia to the story.