- Feb 5
The Musical Friendship of
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Beach Lane Books
(Simon & Schuster)
(pub. 10.14.2025)
48 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Rekha S. Rajan
Illustrator: Ken Daley
Characters: Ella Fitzgerald
and Louis Armstrong
Overview:
" Ella Fitzgerald loved to dance. When little Ella heard jazz music, the music notes moved her legs as she twirled around New York City. Way down south, Louis Armstrong loved to sing. When jazz music played, young Louis’s voice rumbled like a steam train in New Orleans. While Ella dreamed of dancing on stage and Louis of being a famous singer, it wasn’t until they switched things up that they became famous, Ella for singing and Louis playing the trumpet.
The two jazz musicians had heard of each other, but never had a chance to meet. Until one magical night when they took the stage together, the music started to swing, and a lifelong musical friendship was born."
Tantalizing taste:
"When Ella tossed a note with her voice, Louis grabbed it back with his trumpet.
The music would push and pull, push and pull.
Until the music note started to swing.…
Ella's voice told stories as Louis's music painted pictures. Ella loved singing solo, and Louis loved playing alone with his trumpet, but making music together felt just right.
Today, if you ride a train up to Harlem, New York, you'll feel the tracks snapping and swaying, just like Ella's voice.
When you ride a riverboat in New Orleans, Louisiana , you'll hear the wind carrying the toot-toot-toot of Louis's horn.
But no matter where you are, when you feel the melody jump - then glide down; when you hear the notes leap off the scale only to find their way back home again: that's the sound of Ella and Louis's music playing on."
And something more: Rekha S. Rajan shared in the Author's Note: "Ella and Louis... both rose to fame in the early 1900s in America, before the civil rights movement, when people were still separated because of their skin color. When Black people were not allowed to sing on certain stages... Eventually, though, when Ella and Louis made music, everyone came to listen... Ella and Louis sang together, danced together, and captivated audiences together, creating a new sound and new friendship."
Barbara Hillary, the First Black Woman
to Reach the North and South Poles
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Atheneum Books
(Simon & Schuster)
pub. 10.21.2025
40 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Deborah Blumenthal
Illustrator: Anastasia Magloire Williams
Character: Barbara Hillary
Overview:
"As a young girl, Barbara Hillary imagined a life of adventure. Despite facing hardships in her childhood and illness as an adult, she never gave up on her dream: to travel the world and explore hard-to-reach places. So, at age seventy-five, she became the first Black woman to set foot on the North Pole. Less than four years later, she did the same at the South Pole.
Barbara loved everything the world has to offer. During her travels, she discovered that the remote places she cared so much about were threatened by climate change. From then on, she dedicated herself to saving the planet for future generations. She never let her age—or anything else—stop her until she stood at the top of the world!"
Tantalizing taste:
"Barbara Hillary lived in a world of you can, not you can't...
Barbara didn't worry about her health,
even when she was seventy-five
and even though cancer had made her lungs
work at 75 percent of what they should...
When she realized that a Black woman
had never made the...trek [to the North Pole]
an idea began to form.
She would be the adventurer
she never saw in her childhood books...
[After reaching the North and South Poles],
Barbara went on to visit other areas
where most travelers don't go,
learning about how climate change
had harmed places like the poles,
where temperatures were rising
and melting the ice...
If something wasn't done, no other adventurer
would be able to reach those places again."
And something more: Deborah Blumenthal in the Author's Note explains: "While Barbara's accomplishments were extraordinary for a person of any age, what struck me most was the fact that she refused to let time, fear, or negativity get in the way of her dreams...Barbara wanted her life to be an empowering example for others."
- Feb 1
André Leon Talley―
A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Henry Holt
(MacKids)
pub. 11.11.2025
56 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Authors: Carole Boston Weatherford
and Rob Sanders
Illustrator: Lamont O'Neal
Character: André Leon Talley
Overview:
"Growing up in the Jim Crow South wasn't easy for young André. He escaped into the glimmering worlds he discovered inside magazines like Ebony and Vogue. He fell in love with all things French, and honed his taste for elegance and style in spite of those who judged and bullied him. Standing tall against all odds, André spun his hardships into a fashion fairytale of his own making."
Tantalizing taste:
"Safe on a fake-fur bench in his pink bedroom, André read articles and met famous people - like Vogue magazine's editor Diana Vreeland. He tore pages from the magazine to paper his walls and to create his own fairy tale world, an escape form the harshness of the real one."
And something more: Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders in A NOTE from the AUTHORS explain: "André Leon Talley was a man who was bigger than life. His commanding presence, individualism, and groundbreaking work made André memorable to both of us. Because André was African American and gay, we felt that we could bring our two voices together to tell his story. We found it interesting that, as an adult, André described his life as a fairy tale. So, we've woven throughout this story familiar characters, objects and themes from fairy tales - a witch's cauldron, Alice in Wonderland tumbling into a new world, a dangerous forest, and more. We hope André's story will inspire readers who may be different, may not fit in, or may be marching to their own drummer. "
