Becoming Billie Holiday
What's This Book About
The stunning voice and hard life of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday is revealed through evocative, accessible poetry. In 1915, Sadie Fagan gave birth to a daughter she named Eleanora. The world, however, would know her as Billie Holiday, possibly the greatest jazz singer of all time. Eleanora’s journey to become a legend took her through pain, poverty, and run-ins with the law. By the time she was fifteen, she knew she possessed something that could possibly change her life–a voice. Eleanora could sing. Her remarkable voice led her to a place in the spotlight with some of the era’s hottest big bands. Through a sequence of raw and poignant poems, New York Times best-selling and award-winning poet Carole Boston Weatherford chronicles the singer’s young life, her fight for survival, and the dream she pursued with passion.
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The Creatives Behind the Book
Two-time NAACP Image Award winner Carole Boston Weatherford is a New York Times best-selling author and poet. Her books include the Coretta Scott King Honor Book Becoming Billie Holiday, and the Caldecott Honor Books Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom, Freedom in Congo Square, and Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. For career achievements, she has been recognized by the North Carolina English Teachers Association and the Children’s Book Guild of Washington, DC. She teaches at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. Visit her online at CBWeatherford.com.
Floyd Cooper (www.floydcooper.com) always dreamed of becoming an artist, and he has now illustrated dozens of books for children, including Jump! (From the Life of Michael Jordan), Back of the Bus, and Max and the Tag-Along Moon. He received a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations in The Blacker the Berry and a Coretta Scott King Honor for his illustrations in Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea and I Have Heard of a Land. He lives in New Jersey with his family. Follow him on Twitter @floydcooper4.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9781590785072
- Publication Date
- October 1, 2008
- Publisher
- Wordsong
- Page Count
- 120
- Words Per Page
- 95
- Audience
- Middle Grade
- Reading Age
- 9 - 12 years
- Lib. of Congress (LCCN)
- 2007051214
- WorldCat Number (OCLC)
- 191846391
- Lexile® Level
- 970L
- Est. Fountas & Pinnell Level
- ~W
- ATOS® Book Level
- 5.8
- Accelerated Reader® Points
- 2
- Accelerated Reader Quiz
- 124496
- Accelerated Reader Interest Level
- UG
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