The Jazz Fly [Mixed media product]

This singular story about musical insects celebrates language and the inventive spirit of jazz. The book includes an audio CD, and FREE AUDIO DOWNLOAD, featuring the author's narration set to a jazz quartet. A fly, who speaks jazz, asks different critters which way to town. "Rrribit," replies the frog. "Oink," says the hog. Although baffled, the fly hears music in their words, and that evening he uses those sounds to set the insect dinner club a hoppin.' The computer enhanced artwork of Karen Hanke perfectly complements the text and CD. Get ready to tap, snap, and swing to the beat as Nancy the Gnat, Willie the Worm, and Sammy the Centipede take the stage. Here's a combination of storytelling, visual art, and music for children to savor time and again.

• Writer's DigestNational Self-Published Book Award America's #1
• Recommended Children's Book—Children's Book Sense 76
• Benjamin Franklin Award for children's book/audio book
• Smithsonian's Notable Books for Children
• California Department of Education Suggested Reading
• San Francisco ChronicleEditors' Picks Featured on "West Coast Live" and major jazz radio stations

"This story portrays jazz as freedom to experiment with sounds and to think creatively. Beautifully illustrated, and with a great CD, this gets our vote for the best new book for children of all ages!" —Children’s Book Sense 76, the newsletter of independent booksellers nationwide

"Jazz Fly sits down at his drums and begins to play, incorporating the animal sounds into his music to great audience response." —Booklist

"The rhyming text includes scat refrains like “ZA-baza, BOO-zaba, ZEE-zah RO-ni” that just beg to be read aloud…The illustrations and book design give the whole enterprise the feel of jazz, even withoutlã+