ELIB 530A – LibraryThing Part B – Picture Book 4
This book is about Elvis’s influences and inspirational events in his childhood and early adolescence. The artists’ oil wash paintings bring a beautiful luminous quality to the time period and place of this story. I loved reading this book because it gives a side of Elvis many people do not know about. He grew up poor in the Deep South and was heavily influenced by the
variety of African American’s and their music that surrounded him. Some years ago, I saw a documentary about him that included a clip of him playing guitar and singing with two African American friends and paying verbal homage to the African American musical heritage that had made his music possible. I had a new found respect for him then. Before that time I had blindly thought of him as a supremely lucky white opportunist. This book tells with sensitivity his trials with alienation and his triumphs of heartfelt inspirations. This book would be a terrific addition to a collection of books that tell the story of the roots of modern American music and stories of individual’s artistic epiphanies.

This book is about the life of Elvis Presley when he was a little boy. HIs family had a rough time making it financially so they moved to a small town where it was mostly black people. Elvis had a hard time going to school and making friends when he lived there so his mom bought him a guitar and he took that guitar everywhere. After awhile, his family was able to move out of that town and move to Memphis.
This is a good book to show that racism can always go both ways. We hear mostly about blacks being the minority group but in this book it shows the other way around.
Having the students write a short paragraph about what they think about racism is a good extension. It allows them to express their feelings about racism.