SKIT-SCAT RAGGEDY CAT: ELLA FITZGERALD, my latest book, has received two starred reviews!!!
Written by Roxane Orgill, the book focuses on Ella's early life in Yonkers, where she would dance in the street to earn money. After her mother dies she and her younger sister go to live with their aunt in Harlem.
Young Ella had a tough time living with her aunt. She began singing on the streets again as she did in Yonkers.
It was at the Apollo Theater's Amateur night where her true talent came through. Too nervous to dance, she sang instead and thus, a star was born.
Publisher's Weekly calls it "An unforgettable portrait of an artist whose faith in herself carried her when little else did."
And School Library Journal says "Qualls firmly establishes himself as a leading illustrator of jazz biographies for children. He uses rich reds and blues to illustrate the history of this quintessentially American art form."
My earliest memories of Ella was this tv commercial she did for memorex.
