The Bourbon Street Band Is Back

Ed Shankman was born in the Bronx, New York, and lives today in Verona, New Jersey. As a creative director in the advertising industry, he has directed creative efforts for some of the world's best-known companies. Beyond the office, he has always spent his time chasing creative inspiration as a writer, guitar player, and painter. With illustrator Dave O'Neill, he has created nine winning children's titles for Commonwealth Editions, an imprint of Applewood Books.

Award-winning author and illustrator duo Ed Shankman and Dave O'Neill turn to the birthplace of jazz, New Orleans, Louisiana! Jazz, of course, is the only truly American form of music, born from a meeting and mixing of cultures where the mighty Mississippi meets the Gulf of Mexico. Drummer Bobcat Bob leads a hot band of multi-cultural musicians, featuring a gator on bass, a finger-snapping frog, and a horn section made up of raccoons, a crayfish, and some loons. Bobcat Bob's band is known for miles around - "They played like wind. They played like fire. They raised the roof, and raised it higher. They played all night and weren't done, 'Til morning came and they raised the sun." But one day the music stopped and "the great New Orleans lost its voice." Through months of darkness and sadness the people "wished that things were like before." And with a single drum beat on Bourbon Street, and then another, and another, the music came back to New Orleans, better than ever! Children and parents alike will love this story about the healing power of music.