Between the theft of people from the African continent and the sale of people in America, from the ships that brought them and the ocean that swallowed some of them to their uncompensated work and the breakup of families, Alexander introduces objections from the implied listeners (“ But you can’t sell people,” “ That’s not fair”), despair from the narrating adult, encouragement from the youth, and ultimately an answer to the repeated question about how to tell this story. “How do you tell a story / that starts in Africa / and ends in horror?”Īlexander uses multiple voices to weave this poem about a teacher who takes on the difficult but necessary task of starting a classroom conversation about slavery. Readers will want to pore over this thoroughly engaging volume. This story is all about his rise the decline and ignominious end are omitted, even in the author’s note.

Illustrations reflect Elvis’ segregated South, the white boy’s African-American influences confined to one image of a black church and another of bluesmen on Beale Street. Information included inside the book jacket shows how he builds small, theaterlike sets from cardboard, wire, fabric, and found objects and characters’ heads out of polymer clay, then photographs them from various perspectives-from feet under a table in a diner to Elvis and his girlfriend sitting on a neon sign above the city. Dyeing his hair black and donning colorful outfits from secondhand stores, Elvis developed a “LOOK AT ME” persona and dreamed of becoming “the biggest star in the world.” Stylized, information-packed narration broken into single-page “chapters” provides the platform for Red Nose Studio’s (aka Chris Sickels) eye-grabbing art.

He grew up singing in church, at the county fair, in the classroom with the guitar his mama had bought him, and, after the family moved to Memphis, in the high school talent show. From poor, blond boy to the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Elvis Presley lived the classic rags-to-riches storybook life.Īccording to Winter’s heightened, poetic narrative, “singing is the reason / Elvis was brought into this world” and became the means by which he transcended his impoverished beginnings.

Elvis Is King! by Jonah Winter