Two-time Caldecott Medal winner Chris Raschka captures the sound passion innovation and love
of the arts that the renowned jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams shared with the world. Mary's Idea
is a stunning and transporting picture book about music and the creative process for readers
of Trombone Shorty and Chris Raschka's acclaimed books about musicians including Charlie
Parker Played Be Bop and Mysterious Thelonious. At the age of three Mary Lou Williams taught
herself how to play the piano. At the age of fifteen she was considered a professional. An
American jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams wrote hundreds of compositions recorded
hundreds of songs and wrote arrangements for musicians including Duke Ellington and Benny
Goodman. Mary's Idea is an exquisite picture book about Mary Lou Williams an artist often
overlooked in the canon of American music because of her gender and skin color. With a text
full of rhythm and movement and illustrations that sing off the page Chris Raschka's picture
book is equal parts biography and celebration of the imagination ideas and creative process.
Mary's Idea will find readers in fans of Traci N. Todd's and Christian Robinson's Nina and
Brian Selznick's and Pam Muñoz Ryan's When Marian Sang. Includes backmatter.
