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The Jazz Man
In this Newbery Honor–winning picture book, a young boy falls in love with the incredible music that his neighbor makes.
Zeke, a nine-year-old boy with a lame leg, lives five flights up in a house in Harlem and amuses himself by looking out the windows. When the Jazz Man with his wonderful music moves into a bright yellow room across the courtyard, Zeke’s life takes on new meaning.
He doesn’t think about the jobs his father works or how his mother goes up and down five long flights of stairs of stairs every day with the dreamy blues adding color to the drab world. But what would happen to Zeke’s dream is the Jazz Man leaves?
Zeke, a nine-year-old boy with a lame leg, lives five flights up in a house in Harlem and amuses himself by looking out the windows. When the Jazz Man with his wonderful music moves into a bright yellow room across the courtyard, Zeke’s life takes on new meaning.
He doesn’t think about the jobs his father works or how his mother goes up and down five long flights of stairs of stairs every day with the dreamy blues adding color to the drab world. But what would happen to Zeke’s dream is the Jazz Man leaves?
42 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
1 person is currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
Mary Hays Weik
12 booksMary Hays Weik was born in 1898 in Greencastle, Indiana. She graduated with an A.B. from DePauw University and later worked as a journalist, a consultant for social agencies and schools, and as a writer. Mary Hays Weik published her first book, Adventure: A Book of Verse in 1919. She also wrote books on the atomic pollution of the environment and edited an anti-nuclear newsletter. She published her first book for children and young adults, The House at Cherry Hill, in 1938. In 1966, she published The Jazz Man, a story about a young African-American boy living in Harlem. The book, illustrated by her daughter the author/illustrator Ann Grifalconi, was a Newbery Honor Book in 1967. Mary Hays Weik continued to write for children and young adults and in 1972 published a work of historical fiction, A House on Liberty Street, that drew on the life of an ancestor, a German immigrant who came to the United States in the 1840s. Mary Hays Weik died on December 25, 1979 in Manhattan, New York.
Biographical Sources: Something About the Author, vol. 3, pp. 247-248. and vol. 23, p. 233.
Biographical Sources: Something About the Author, vol. 3, pp. 247-248. and vol. 23, p. 233.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
March 23, 2018
Funny how life can be good enough one moment and so bad the next. Sometimes, we, as people, take for granted what we have because we don't realize we could lose it. To add insult to injury, many times, we have no control over what remains ours. This describes the life of a child named Zeke. Zeke doesn't seem to have much but he seems content with what he does have until, little by little, he experiences loss after loss. The loss of the Jazz Man who played piano until he didn't. The loss of his mother when she abandoned him. The loss of his father to alcohol. The loss of his neighbors to anger. The loss of school out of fear. The loss of health from hunger. The loss of life without love.
It was an atmospheric read, but I felt the emotional impact was impaired by the shortness of the book. I suppose that's a questionable quality, however, since this is made for young readers. With that said, I wouldn't not recommend it.
It was an atmospheric read, but I felt the emotional impact was impaired by the shortness of the book. I suppose that's a questionable quality, however, since this is made for young readers. With that said, I wouldn't not recommend it.
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October 5, 2020Phil Jensen's review says what needs to be said upfront... but I gotta say, atm I feel like *I* don't know what the heck I just read. Or saw; the pictures are very important.
I need to find out if it's #OwnVoices. I can't figure out if it's racist or not... I mean, it's respectful of all the individuals as people, but at the same time they do fill stereotypical roles.... Anyway, take 12-20 minutes to read this and then come discuss it in the Children's Books group!
I have such mixed feelings, including bemusement... I'm leaving it unrated at least for now.
I need to find out if it's #OwnVoices. I can't figure out if it's racist or not... I mean, it's respectful of all the individuals as people, but at the same time they do fill stereotypical roles.... Anyway, take 12-20 minutes to read this and then come discuss it in the Children's Books group!
I have such mixed feelings, including bemusement... I'm leaving it unrated at least for now.
June 10, 2020
This is more like a short story than a book. Because of it's length, and straight-forward prose, it segues nicely into a discussion of poverty in America. When reading this with one of the kids, I'll also take the time to study the images. We may have to google 'woodcut' so we can appreciate the time and effort that went into making the 18 prints included here.
September 19, 2020
Oddball book with a lot of charm. I enjoyed the expressive illustrations and the emotional text. The story was random in a way that I enjoyed. This is a typical example of the quirky stuff you find when you do a Newbery deep dive.
Do I recommend it for kids? Not especially. It was cool for me, but a child would come away wondering what the heck they just read.
Do I recommend it for kids? Not especially. It was cool for me, but a child would come away wondering what the heck they just read.
October 30, 2020
A Newbery Honor Book (1966) with a sub-theme of how music can provide comfort and bring people together. Certainly, this short 42 page book, with relevant and interesting woodcut artwork by Ann Grifalconi, should make you uncomfortable. The main theme centers around the main character, a child, who is left at home on his own day after day due to a leg deformation that makes him limp. No-one cares that he is missing out on an education, and he hides from the truancy officers that come around infrequently. Finally, both his mother and father abandon him for days, with no food. This boy's solace is the man across the road who plays jazz piano, and his band. Thankfully, the boy's parents return at the end of the story, but this could be a frightening read to some children. For sure, this book could be based on a true story, and I know that this type of life happens too frequently in the United States, so kudos for presenting the world of children's literature with a slice of life story.
September 18, 2010
For such a small book (forty-two pages in the edition that I own), The Jazz Man is a surprisingly powerful story. It sweeps us along on a short but memorable journey beside a boy named Zeke who is just in the first stages of beginning to lose everything that matters in his life.
The writing style of Mary Hays Weik is unconventional, looping around here and there in odd, unexpected ways that somehow seem very appropriate for the story it tells. Zeke seems so happy when the "Jazz Man" musician moves into the room across the way in the apartment complex that contains the home where he and his parents live. Smooth, lively music glides through the air all the time and seems to make every problem that arises seem a little less severe, a little more manageable, a little less of a major concern. Zeke loves the Jazz Man and his music group, at times just languorously losing himself in the sweet music and letting it have its way with his impressionable mind.
Things start to go wrong, though, and so shortly after Zeke is at his peak of happiness, he finds himself suddenly alone in the world, without even the Jazz Man to sooth him with his mellow riffs. What will happen to a boy who has lost nearly everything? What can he cling to with true hope in his heart, when all signs of that hope have drifted away into the nothingness of darkest night?
I am more impressed by this book than I expected it to be. Mary Hays Weik does a solid job of creating a little novel that takes us through the entire gamut of emotions, and I can see why it was given a Newbery Honor Medal. I would recommend it.
The writing style of Mary Hays Weik is unconventional, looping around here and there in odd, unexpected ways that somehow seem very appropriate for the story it tells. Zeke seems so happy when the "Jazz Man" musician moves into the room across the way in the apartment complex that contains the home where he and his parents live. Smooth, lively music glides through the air all the time and seems to make every problem that arises seem a little less severe, a little more manageable, a little less of a major concern. Zeke loves the Jazz Man and his music group, at times just languorously losing himself in the sweet music and letting it have its way with his impressionable mind.
Things start to go wrong, though, and so shortly after Zeke is at his peak of happiness, he finds himself suddenly alone in the world, without even the Jazz Man to sooth him with his mellow riffs. What will happen to a boy who has lost nearly everything? What can he cling to with true hope in his heart, when all signs of that hope have drifted away into the nothingness of darkest night?
I am more impressed by this book than I expected it to be. Mary Hays Weik does a solid job of creating a little novel that takes us through the entire gamut of emotions, and I can see why it was given a Newbery Honor Medal. I would recommend it.
July 17, 2010
I was a little heartbroken by the end of this story. The black and white illustrations are very powerful. The style of the artwork fits the tone of the book as the story takes you up and down emotionally. Its a sad look at poverty through the eyes of a little boy. His imagination frees him from the pain of hunger and lonelines. The multiethnic Jazz band and it's colorful music seems to symbolize all the hope of what life should be like for everyone. The boy feels deeply connected to the music, but it can't put food on the table or rock him to sleep. As tragedy takes over at the end of the story, I definitely feel that this would be most appropriate for older students. It could be used to frame a great discussion on esconomics in the real world during a social studies class.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2020
The Jazz Man tore at my heart strings, for as a parent, I cannot imagine leaving my young children in the house for days with no access to food. While I can understand the mother's frustration with regard to the father's being out of work, I cannot understand her leaving without taking the boy with her. Otherwise, I thought the story was well-written, and the wood block illustrations helped to illumine the text.
April 21, 2018
The rough, brown woodcuts in this 42-page, moving-up level book published in 1966 are beautiful and moving. There are images on almost every page-spread, helping break up the text so it's not too dense, and providing a feeling of the setting as well as details of the story.
The straightforward text is a mix of description (much of it poetic) and conversation, and would be perfect for people building fluency as readers who have more complex life experiences, but still need sentences with simple construction.
However, although this book was well-reviewed at the time it was published, it feels very dated now. The 9-year-old boy isn't in school, and the implication is that it is related to the fact that he has a malformed foot, yet he is capable of getting around and is otherwise curious and thoughtful. Why is he not in school? A "lame foot" should not keep him home, not even in 1966. And a child can't simply hide "in the closet when the school man came, looking for children." Did his parents tell him to hide, or were they so neglectful they never bothered to enroll him?
Nor is he home-schooled by his parents. In fact, he is often left alone, even before he is totally abandoned by both of them, and no explanation is offered for any of it.
The end result is that readers are led to only empathize with his curiosity about the Jazz Man across the way and his amazing music, and feel nothing but pity for the little boy.
Feeling pity for children in poverty and having no context in which to place their choices is not what readers now need from literature. (When the mother and father both leave him alone, is it for work? Did they try to explain their departure to him, and he didn't understand it, or did they truly both just walk away from him, as the text suggests?
As a "window" this does not meet my need for sufficient context to empathize with and expand my understanding for the family.
As a "mirror" the question is; Does this portrayal of a Black family in poverty in Harlem a few generations ago reflect accurately their history and their experiences? Is this such a unique situation - the child home alone all day, neglected, not in school - that very few people could identify with it? Did many children not attend school during this time period? (The time period is not specified, but listing the various jobs the father has tried or refused - driving trucks, running elevators, following races, waiting tables - it probably takes place between 1920 and 1966, when it was published.)
In my opinion, it doesn't build enough understanding about the family to let readers connect with them.
There is an aspect of the ending of this book, like Anderson's The Little Match Girl or Polacco's I Can Hear the Sun that leaves the reader confused: It seems much more likely at that point that the hungry boy, weak with illness, has hallucinated the ideal ending than that the parents have returned and are calm, loving, and ready to take care of him. Yet to even think it's a dream feels like the reader is betraying the actual people who might find themselves so desperate as to leave their child alone, and then return - desperately imagining their child has survived their absence.
The sense that this is just not how it ever happens lingers far longer than the boy's absorption with the brightest joy of his day - a neighbor playing piano with the window open.
The straightforward text is a mix of description (much of it poetic) and conversation, and would be perfect for people building fluency as readers who have more complex life experiences, but still need sentences with simple construction.
However, although this book was well-reviewed at the time it was published, it feels very dated now. The 9-year-old boy isn't in school, and the implication is that it is related to the fact that he has a malformed foot, yet he is capable of getting around and is otherwise curious and thoughtful. Why is he not in school? A "lame foot" should not keep him home, not even in 1966. And a child can't simply hide "in the closet when the school man came, looking for children." Did his parents tell him to hide, or were they so neglectful they never bothered to enroll him?
Nor is he home-schooled by his parents. In fact, he is often left alone, even before he is totally abandoned by both of them, and no explanation is offered for any of it.
The end result is that readers are led to only empathize with his curiosity about the Jazz Man across the way and his amazing music, and feel nothing but pity for the little boy.
Feeling pity for children in poverty and having no context in which to place their choices is not what readers now need from literature. (When the mother and father both leave him alone, is it for work? Did they try to explain their departure to him, and he didn't understand it, or did they truly both just walk away from him, as the text suggests?
As a "window" this does not meet my need for sufficient context to empathize with and expand my understanding for the family.
As a "mirror" the question is; Does this portrayal of a Black family in poverty in Harlem a few generations ago reflect accurately their history and their experiences? Is this such a unique situation - the child home alone all day, neglected, not in school - that very few people could identify with it? Did many children not attend school during this time period? (The time period is not specified, but listing the various jobs the father has tried or refused - driving trucks, running elevators, following races, waiting tables - it probably takes place between 1920 and 1966, when it was published.)
In my opinion, it doesn't build enough understanding about the family to let readers connect with them.
There is an aspect of the ending of this book, like Anderson's The Little Match Girl or Polacco's I Can Hear the Sun that leaves the reader confused: It seems much more likely at that point that the hungry boy, weak with illness, has hallucinated the ideal ending than that the parents have returned and are calm, loving, and ready to take care of him. Yet to even think it's a dream feels like the reader is betraying the actual people who might find themselves so desperate as to leave their child alone, and then return - desperately imagining their child has survived their absence.
The sense that this is just not how it ever happens lingers far longer than the boy's absorption with the brightest joy of his day - a neighbor playing piano with the window open.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 30, 2011
Beginning with a few moments of organized happiness to the slight down turn to regret and loss this short tale evokes from the outset a mood the modern, i.e. younger, reader may not relate to in its proper contemporaneous setting. The final descent to the dark and total depressive mid portion of this story is only carried along by the knowledge of the fact it will not go on much longer as there are only a few pages left. Then . . .
A moment of joy and redemption and the world is again new and the light has returned. A few pages into this book I immediately began to think of Thelonious Monk and Monk's Dream. My perhaps too many years listening to Jazz of both the Harlem Renaissance period and the birth of the cool has ingrained a series of grace notes that always resonate with associate themes. Such is the Jazz Man's effect for me. Monk's compositions that floated across the Harlem night sky featuring his hammered discordant seconds coupled with his mathematical precision in composition are echoed by this story. The Jazz Man for me is a illustration in prose of a now almost forgotten moment in American Urban history. The living links to that brief period (see Gary Giddins or others for details) are fading quickly and perhaps small works like this will continue from time to time to remind us of an important era in our history of arts and letters where the stars collided serendipitously. [ O.K. I've been reading a lot of Southern Lit including Conroy and Faulkner lately! ]
This short, otherwise unremarkable dark simplistic story has an undercurrent that relies heavily on the historical moment in which it was written to succeed. Thus I'd not dismiss it quickly but evaluate it in the context of its time.
A moment of joy and redemption and the world is again new and the light has returned. A few pages into this book I immediately began to think of Thelonious Monk and Monk's Dream. My perhaps too many years listening to Jazz of both the Harlem Renaissance period and the birth of the cool has ingrained a series of grace notes that always resonate with associate themes. Such is the Jazz Man's effect for me. Monk's compositions that floated across the Harlem night sky featuring his hammered discordant seconds coupled with his mathematical precision in composition are echoed by this story. The Jazz Man for me is a illustration in prose of a now almost forgotten moment in American Urban history. The living links to that brief period (see Gary Giddins or others for details) are fading quickly and perhaps small works like this will continue from time to time to remind us of an important era in our history of arts and letters where the stars collided serendipitously. [ O.K. I've been reading a lot of Southern Lit including Conroy and Faulkner lately! ]
This short, otherwise unremarkable dark simplistic story has an undercurrent that relies heavily on the historical moment in which it was written to succeed. Thus I'd not dismiss it quickly but evaluate it in the context of its time.
January 7, 2015
I think this is a very sad book. Sure glad I'm not that kid. I think that it is too troubling for the age-level it seems to be written for. I also think it could hit some points a lot better by quadrupling the length of the book. It SHOULD hit your emotions, but other than making you think 'This kid's parents sure do suck,' and 'I wish I had a Jazz man living across the alley from me,' it doesn't inspire or impress.
March 28, 2020
This book is heart-breaking. Having snuggled my own little boy right before reading it, I was in tears in the last half of the book. The artwork is lovely, the book is well-written; I can see why it was chosen as a Newbery Honor Book. But it is definitely a sign of its time, as well. Social services have changed a lot since this time. Parts of this story are universal, but parts are for a very select audience.
May 22, 2015
Sadly I don't know why this book was awarded a newberry honor metal. It ended WAY to fast the author probably could have taken more time on it!
November 10, 2022
The woodcut images that accompany this short story are incredible and add greatly to the overall impression of this book. Young Zeke experiences the feelings of joy and escapes the burdens of his troubled life as he listens to the inspiring music heralded by his new neighbor, the Jazz Man. There are lines of prose that portray volumes of feeling and emotion, especially while describing what good music can evoke.
"It was wonderful what he could do. He could play a table of food right down in front of you when you were hungry. He could play your Mama's worries right out of her head, when the rent man was nagging her for the rent money she didn't have. He could play the sad look off her mouth, and shiny silver slippers onto her feet - just like that - and zip her into a party dress with silver stars all over it, smelling of violet perfume (the kind she loved!) and start her dancing like she used to.
He could play your Daddy out of his no-job blues, play the dreams right out of his old brown bottle, and make him feel like the king of the universe." (p. 17)
There are some themes portrayed in this book that would be disturbing for young readers, like why does Zeke not attend school, where does his mother go and why does she not return, and why does his father leave him. The ending was a bit muddled as well, leaving me wondering what actually became of young Zeke and even his parents.
"It was wonderful what he could do. He could play a table of food right down in front of you when you were hungry. He could play your Mama's worries right out of her head, when the rent man was nagging her for the rent money she didn't have. He could play the sad look off her mouth, and shiny silver slippers onto her feet - just like that - and zip her into a party dress with silver stars all over it, smelling of violet perfume (the kind she loved!) and start her dancing like she used to.
He could play your Daddy out of his no-job blues, play the dreams right out of his old brown bottle, and make him feel like the king of the universe." (p. 17)
There are some themes portrayed in this book that would be disturbing for young readers, like why does Zeke not attend school, where does his mother go and why does she not return, and why does his father leave him. The ending was a bit muddled as well, leaving me wondering what actually became of young Zeke and even his parents.
May 2, 2019
A young boy in living in Harlem spends his days looking out the apartment window across to other windows, keeping up with the neighbors' lives. He's particularly intent on waiting to see who moves into an empty place and is delighted when it turns out to be a jazz pianist. He also struggles with his unhappy parents and is even abandoned by them for a short period (? The narrative is fuzzy here). The premise is good, but the writing is wonky, it seems. Zeke's abandonment seems sudden and not really in line with where the story was going, and then the ending is way too abrupt and pat, making the arc even more strange and difficult to follow.
August 14, 2022
This is a very short and entertaining children's book. It's 42 pages, but almost half of those are illustrations. The only reason it took me a week to read this 42-page book is because somewhere around page 30, I was sent on very short but emotional rollercoaster. I had to put it down for a few days. Without giving anything away, there were some unexpected turns that happened in about the last 15 pages, that pulled at my heartstrings.
December 11, 2023
Unspecified setting. 42 pp. Lovely work with fabulous art. I was terrified for Zeke. Read at https://archive.org/details/jazzman00...
The Jazz Man by Mary Hays Weik
The Jazz Man by Mary Hays Weik
January 21, 2024
The only part that I liked were the wood-cut illustrations. The story would do nothing for a child reader but confuse them. There was no point and was a total waste of my 20 minutes to read this short story. This was the stereotypical Newbery Honor book that makes people hate the award. Also, what is the background for Weik? In a short search, I could only find that she was a world government activist.
July 2, 2025
This is a short story about a boy who watches a Jazz musician from his window while dealing with family problems at home. I'm not sure I'd recommend this book to kids, and personally, I felt really confused about some of what was going on.
This is a Newbery Honor book. If it was released today, it would probably be put into a collection of stories rather than released as stand-alone.
This is a Newbery Honor book. If it was released today, it would probably be put into a collection of stories rather than released as stand-alone.
May 9, 2017
The story is simple and the resolution underwhelming-- but right up 'til the final couple of pages, this is a wonderfully atmospheric and evocative book, and one that's admirable in how it deals with heavy issues unflinchingly, trusting kids to handle it. Lovely illustrations, too!
January 4, 2018
*Newbery honor
Short story about an African American family in Harlem and the Jazz Man.
Short story about an African American family in Harlem and the Jazz Man.
June 3, 2019
Short, happy ending, but a little weird.
November 4, 2019
Beautiful illustrations
October 25, 2020
I like to read Newbery books. I also like to read historical fiction. This book is both.
February 7, 2023
Emotional rollercoaster
April 3, 2024
For a 42 page book (including illustrations) I was surprised this made me feel so many emotions in such a short span of time! Sad short story with a lot of heart.
November 22, 2025
3.5 stars
December 9, 2022
Nine-year-old Zeke watches neighbors through his window all day instead of going to school. A jazz man moves in across the street, and his friends come over and make music with him. Zeke's dad can't hold a steady job, and his mother abandons him. His father disappears too, and Zeke has nothing to eat. Zeke dreams of going downstairs and out of the brownstone to see the jazzman. He wakes up to find his father, who has brought his mother back.
I didn't care for this story. Zeke needed to be in school, not hiding in his home and watching the neighbors through the window all day. How is his life ever supposed to get any better if he doesn't have an education? How is he going to learn how to provide for himself one day? And the parents abandoning him is abysmal. Parents have to set good examples for their children.
I didn't care for this story. Zeke needed to be in school, not hiding in his home and watching the neighbors through the window all day. How is his life ever supposed to get any better if he doesn't have an education? How is he going to learn how to provide for himself one day? And the parents abandoning him is abysmal. Parents have to set good examples for their children.
May 2, 2011
This book was beautifully written about life in tenants of Harlem, NYC at the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. However, some of the story really bothered me. I didn't like how the main character didn't go to school and the parents ignored the truant officer. Then the parents abandoned him without any food. I know those situations happen but I don't understand what message the author was trying to send about it. I will leave this book on my shelves for students to read if they wish but I don't think I'll be recommending it to anyone anytime soon.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews