“Ella was going to be famous. She told everyone so. Never mind her broken-down shoes. Ella was raggedy and poor, but she was tough.” Ella Fitzgerald needed to be tough as a teen. Her mother died when she was fourteen, and the music in Ella seemed to die for awhile, too. Ella eventually opted for life on the streets over an orphanage, singing and dancing on corners, soaking up everything about music that she could. Roxane Orgill’s be-bopping picture book biography describes Ella’s early years and her against-the-odds rise to fame as she worked to shape passion and raw talent into her distinctive musical style. Ella took advantage of every chance that came her way, turning small breaks into big opportunities to shine. “She’d had a dancing beat in her feet ever since she was a bitty girl in Yonkers, and all she ever needed was a chance to send that beat traveling up through her body, into her throat, and out her mouth into a song.” Colors glide with cool rhythms in Sean Qualls’s energetic paintings. (Ages 6–10)

A swinging bio of young Ella Fitzgerald, who pushed through the toughest of times to become one of America’s most beloved jazz singers.

When Ella Fitzgerald danced the Lindy Hop on the streets of 1930s Yonkers, passersby said good-bye to their loose change. But for a girl who was orphaned and hungry, with raggedy clothes and often no place to spend the night, small change was not enough. One amateur night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Ella made a discovery: the dancing beat in her feet could travel up and out of her mouth in a powerful song —and the feeling of being listened to was like a salve to her heart. With lively prose, Roxane Orgill follows the gutsy Ella from school-girl days to a featured spot with Chick Webb’s band and all the way to her number-one radio hit "A-Tisket, A-Tasket." Jazzy mixed-media art by illustrator Sean Qualls brings the singer’s indomitable spirit to life.