Book: The Jazz Kid

Author: James Lincoln Collier

Genre: Historical Fiction

Page Count: 224

Paulie has never done well in school. He’s never had the patience, or motivation to do anything, but then Jazz walks into his life. He takes up the Cornet and sticks with it, making a promise to his Mom that he would keep up his grades. But that doesn’t work out too well . . .

This book was kind of meh. It wasn’t bad necessarily, but I didn’t really enjoy it. (then again I don’t like most things with out revolution, drama, or fighting) I though some of the characters were really interesting, especially Paulie’s dad.

I read this for the 1920s’ history unit. I thought I learned a lot about what peoples’ mindsets were like back then. Another really intriguing thing about this book was the fact that most of the musicians in it were real people, like Benny Goodman, Louie Armstrong and the Rhythm Kings.

If you like historical fiction books that teach you more than entertain you, I would recommend this book.