Karen Ackerman - Song and Dance Man: (Caldecott Medal Winner)

THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
Text Copyright 1988 by Karen Ackerman
Illustrations Copyright 1988 by Stephen Gammell
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Originally published in Hardcover by Random House Childrens Books, New York, in 1988.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 87-3200
eISBN: 978-0-307-79279-2
First Ebook Edition 2013

v3.1

G randpa was a song and dance man who once danced on the vaudeville stage.

When we visit, he tells us about a time before people watched TV, back in the good old days, the song and dance days.

Supper in an hour! Grandma calls from the kitchen.

I wonder if my tap shoes still fit? Grandpa says with a smile. Then he turns on the light to the attic, and we follow him up the steep, wooden steps.

Faded posters of Grandpa when he was young hang on the walls.

He moves some cardboard boxes and a rack of Grandmas winter dresses out of the way, and we see a dusty brown, leather-trimmed trunk in the corner.

As soon as Grandpa opens it, the smell of cedar chips and old things saved fills the attic. Inside are his shoes with the silver, half-moon taps on the toes and heels, bowler hats and top hats, and vests with stripes and matching bow ties.

We try on the hats and pretend were dancing on a vaudeville stage, where the bright lights twinkle and the piano player nods his head along with the music.

After wiping his shoes with a cloth he calls a shammy, Grandpa puts them on. He tucks small, white pads inside the shoes so his corns wont rub, and he turns on the lamps and aims each one down like a spotlight.

He sprinkles a little powder on the floor, and its show time. We sit on one of Grandmas woolen blankets, clap our hands, and call out, Yay, Grandpa!

The song and dance man begins to dance the old soft shoe. His feet move slowly at first, while his tap shoes make soft, slippery sounds like rain on a tin roof.

We forget that its Grandpa dancing, and all we can hear is the silvery tap of two feet, and all we can see is a song and dance man gliding across a vaudeville stage.

He says, Watch this! and does a new step that sounds like a woodpecker tapping on a tree. Suddenly, his shoes move faster, and he begins to sing. His voice is as round and strong as a canyon echo, and his cheeks get rosy as he sings Yankee Doodle Boy, a song he knows from the good old days.

There are too many dance steps and too many words in the song for us to remember, but the show is better than any show on TV.

The song and dance man stops and leans forward with a wink.

Whats that in your ear? he asks, and he pulls a silver dollar out of somebodys hair.

He rolls his bowler hat down his arm, catches it in his hand, and flips it back up onto his head.

Know how to make an elephant float? he asks. One scoop of ice cream, two squirts of soda, and three scoops of elephant!

Weve heard that joke before, but the song and dance man slaps his knee and laughs until his eyes water.

He tries to wipe them with a red hanky from his vest pocket, but the hanky just gets longer and longer as he pulls it out. He looks so surprised that we start laughing too, and it feels like the whole attic is shaking.

Sometimes we laugh so hard, the hiccups start, and Grandpa stops to bring us a glass of water from the bathroom.

Drink slow and hold your breath, he says, or Ill have to scare you!