Reader Score
80%
80% of readers
recommend this book
Growing up in a Blue Ridge mountain town, little Roberta didn't have fancy clothes or expensive toys...but she did have music. And she dreamed of having her own piano.
When her daddy spies an old, beat-up upright piano in a junkyard, he knows he can make his daughter's dream come true. He brings it home, cleans and tunes it, and paints it a grassy green. And soon the little girl has an instrument to practice on, and a new dream to reach for--one that will make her become a legend in the music industry.
Here is a lyrical picture book--perfect for aspiring piano players and singers--that shares an intimate look at Roberta Flack's family and her special connection to music.
Tonya Bolden is the award-winning author/co-author/editor of more than two dozen books for young people. They include Finding Family, which was a Kirkus Reviews and Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year; Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; MLK: Journey of a King, winner of a National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Award; and Emancipation Proclamation: Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty, an ALSC Notable Children's Book and CBC/NCSS Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People. Tonya also received the Children's Book Guild of Washington, DC's Nonfiction Award. A Princeton University magna cum laude baccalaureate with a master's degree from Columbia University, Tonya lives in NYC.
Hayden Goodman is a painter and children's book illustrator born and raised in the wilderness of Western Massachusetts. Her clients include the New Yorker, the New York Times, MIT, and Garden & Gun. The Green Piano is her debut picture book.
★ "Flack and Bolden employ spare, matter-of-fact verse to share the story of this initial piano and the hope it represented." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
★ "A warm, soulful picture book autobiography about a living legend that will inspire burgeoning artists to pursue their dreams no matter their circumstances." --School Library Journal, starred review