![]() ![]() ![]() Velasquez's exuberant, realistic paintings follow the thread of family life, tracing the ties that bind father to daughter to granddaughter as well as offering a window on a bygone era. Steeped in nostalgia, the story unfolds like a short film, with black-bordered pages mimicking freeze frames from a movie reel. Told from the girl's point of view and spanning three generations, the picture book reprises a versatile African American musician's career, from his salad days working as an accompanist for silent movies, where ""he'd play romping chords to the thriller-diller chase scenes flashing across the big silver screen,"" to the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway, a ragtime road show and vaudeville, where he met and married a dancer. Chocolate (On the Day I Was Born) looked no further than her own backyard for this lively and affectionate tribute to her grandfather. ![]()
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