Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa (Great Black Performers, 3) - Hardcover

Pinkney, Andrea

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786805684 ISBN 13: 9780786805686

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2002

Synopsis

Ella Fitzgerald began her life as a singer on the stage of the Apollo Theater when she was just seventeen years old. Her rich voice and vocal innovations brought her fame and a remarkable career than spanned half a century and won her generations of fans around the world. Acclaimed author Andrea Davis Pinkney has told Ella's inspiring story in the voice of Scat Cat Monroe, a feline fan whose imagined narrative sings with the infectious rhythms of scat. Two-time Caldecott Honor winner Brian Pinkney's dramatic perspectives and fantastical images offer a jazzy improvisation all their own.

About this title

About the Author

Andrea Davis Pinkney has written several acclaimed picture books, works of nonfiction, and novels. Her fiction for middle-grade readers includes Solo Girl, Raven in a Dove House, Silent Thunder, and Let It Shine, a Coretta Scott King Honor winner. She is also the author of the picture books Alvin Ailey, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald, all illustrated by her husband and frequent collaborator, Brian Pinkney. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

From Publishers Weekly

The talented husband-and-wife team behind Duke Ellington turns to jazz biography once again, this time showcasing the First Lady of Song. Narrated by Scat Cat Monroe, a feline in a zoot suit, the book spins four "tracks" on Fitzgerald's life, from her childhood in Yonkers performing on street corners, to her discovery at a 1934 talent contest at the legendary Apollo Theatre to her move into the "ping-pong rhythms" of bebop. Whether swinging at the Savoy "to a house packed tighter than the A train" or breaking the racial barrier at many clubs ("Ella's popularity showed them that a true star has no color it just shines"), the singer's career is expertly framed to fit a picture book format. The prose, while occasionally labored, swings to a syncopated beat and piles on the synesthesia ("Ella rolled out a tune sweet enough to bake"; "Her voice was quick-fried rhythm, with a brassy satin twist"). Brian Pinkney turns out some of his best work yet. Rendered in a pleasingly high-contrast palette of pastels, the scratchboard illustrations are invested with magical realism, complete with dancers flying off the pages and topsy-turvy musicians. A particularly memorable spread about Ella's hit "How High the Moon" launches her into space on a trumpet with Dizzy Gillespie. A "skippity-hop-doo-dee-bop" picture book. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0786805684
• ISBN 13: 9780786805686
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Pinkney Brian