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Trombone Shorty (Book) Trombone Shorty is a children’s book by author Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews and illustrator Bryan Collier. It follows the early life of the author in his hometown in New Orleans, starting a jazz band at the age of six and playing with Bo Diddley at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It was published by Abrams Books in 2015 and was selected as a Caldecott Honor Book in 2016, and the 2016 recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration.

Description
The story, written by Andrews, is told in the past tense from a younger Andrews point of view (a first-person narrative) and has the repeated phrase throughout the book of "Where y'at?", a customary greeting in New Orleans. This makes the tone of the book more personal, and gives invitation for the reader to experience the culture that Andrews grew up with. The imagery of the balloons throughout the book represent the music that was always present in Andrews life, starting out as mere party balloons and growing in size until, on one page, it is depicted that Andrews himself is fueling a hot air balloon with only the music of his trombone. Collier uses both watercolor images and collage techniques to depict the musical message of Troy Andrews as beautiful colors and shapes.

Plot
The book begins with the phrase "Where y'at", which transitions into a young Troy Andrews recounting how he received his nickname "Trombone Shorty", and begins with his times as a youth in Tremé, a neighborhood in New Orleans. The Andrews recounts how the ever-present sound of music influenced his childhood interests, especially his brother James, who, although not much older than him, was already a leader in his own band and telling the young Troy to "Follow me." The phrase "Where y'at?" appears again, in the form of the musicians calling out to the crowds of people watching them during the Mardi Gras parades. Troy describes loving these parades because he could see the brass bands with their different instruments, and it helped his neighborhood "forget about their troubles for a little while." He then goes into how his mother's gumbo was inspiration to how Troy wanted his music to be (illustrated by the white streaks of the brass band playing past the window intermingling with the "steam" of his mother cooking gumbo). Troy then describes how he started his first band with his friends in the neighborhood. Instead of buying instruments for this, Troy and his friends made their own, saying that "the great thing about music is that you don't even need a real instrument to play."

One day, Troy finds a broken trombone, and begins to practice on it everywhere he went, to the point where he sleeps with the trombone at this bedside. His dreams and aspirations about the future are represented with the depiction of bubbles that rise from his bed. When he took his trombone and joined one of the many parades that went by his house, his brother noticed him playing, and from that day on, Troy Andrews went by Trombone Shorty, due to the trombone being twice his size. One day, Trombone Shorty and his mother went to the New Orleans Jazz Festival to see Bo Diddley perform live. While Bo Diddley was performing, Trombone Shorty played alongside him, and to the surprise of many, Bo Diddley noticed. He was so impressed with Trombone Shorty that Bo Diddley invited him on stage with him, and they played together "Follow Me". After that experience, Trombone Shorty knew he was ready to start his own band, and he got together with his friends and formed the 5 O'Clock Band. From then on, Trombone Shorty began to grow in both experience and popularity (illustrated by the now enlarged hot air balloon that is being fueled by the sound of his trombone), and forming a band called Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, named after one of the streets in his hometown of Tremé.

Critical Reception
Trombone Shorty was published to very strong reviews. Literacy Today praises Andrews in "artfully sharing his experiences of growing up in the musical enclave of Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans." The School Library Journal describes it as "an inspiration to many", and Kirkus Reviews claims that the book "will inspire young reader to pursue their passions, despite the challenges."