Before there was Mozart: A Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevlaier de Saint-George



By Lesa Cline-Ransome and James E. Ransome
Published in 2011

        With my text set I had really gained an appreciation for biographies with children's books. Before reading the story I went through and looked at all the pictures. I loved how the colors brought out the season and I feel like with each of them I could tell the mood of what was going on. By the end I knew it was a story of a boy from birth and how learned to play the violon. He must have gotten really good becuase soon there wre not just African Americans in teh pictures but high class whites as well. There he stayed until he got older performing for what seemed may be royatly.
    After reading the book I could tell my guess from the illustrations were not so far off. This goes to show how wonderfully they aided the text. One thing that I had noticed and could not explain was why he was able to learn music. It turns out the white male in the pictures was actually his father. He was a biracial child.
    This book has a lot to offer. As i stated before it is of a boy from with a biracial background. It would be interesting to see if this was something that was accepted during the time of themid 1700's in the West Indies and France. I would have students respond to this book is with the post-it note activity. Since it is a biography they take not of facts, questions, and their over-all response. Also I think it would be cool to actually listen to one of Joseph Boulogne's pieces in class.