Book Description
The story of Ben is fiction, but it could be the story of more than one jazz musician who grew up in the twenties. Using the art-deco style of the period, Rachel Isadora not only captures the poignancy and yearning of a youthful talent, but in page after page of striking art seems to convey the very sound of music.
School Library Journal
By Rachel Isadora. Original jazz music underscores the narration of this Caldecott Honor Book about a young boy's yearning to play the trumpet just like the musicians that he hears at the Zig Zag Club.
Publishers Weekly
Featuring stunning, evocative black-and-white art, this Caldecott Honor book concerns a boy growing up in the 1920s who aspires to be a jazz musician--"Ben thinks the trumpeter is the cat's meow."