Becoming Billie Holiday, Carole Boston Weatherford
Becoming Billie Holiday, Carole Boston Weatherford
List: $8.99 | Sale: $6.30
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Becoming Billie Holiday

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford

Narrator: Channie Waites

Unabridged: 1 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 09/13/2022


Synopsis

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 7, 1915, Sadie Fagan gave birth to a daughter. She named her Eleanora. The world, however, would know her as Billie Holiday, possibly the greatest jazz singer of all time.

Eleanora's journey into 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.

That remarkable voice led her to Harlem nightclubs, the Apollo Theater, and a place in the spotlight with some of the era's hottest big bands. Billie Holiday sang from somewhere inside her that made it seem as if she had lived each lyric, and in
many ways she had. This unique talent is what made Billie Holiday more than a singer. She was an artist.

Through a sequence of raw and poignant poems that form the singer's fictional memoir, award-winning poet Carole Boston Weatherford chronicles Eleanora Fagan's metamorphosis into Billie Holiday. We hear the intimate voice of the artist
as she examines her young life, her fight for survival, and the dream she pursued with passion.

About Carole Boston Weatherford

Carole Boston Weatherford has written many award-winning books for children, including Kin, illustrated by her son Jeffery and a Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient; Box, which won a Newbery Honor; Unspeakable, which won the Coretta Scott King Award, a Caldecott Honor, and was a finalist for the National Book Award; Respect: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, winner of the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award; ALA Notable Children’s Book You Can Fly; and Caldecott Honor winners Freedom in Congo Square; Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement; and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Carole lives in North Carolina. Visit her at CBWeatherford.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Joana on March 17, 2015

I really enjoyed this book. It is told in verse and also has illustrations throughout it, but the way the story is told is so captivating that I couldn't stop reading! This follows a African-American young girl who grows up in a difficult situation: her mother got pregnant really young and couldn't t......more

Goodreads review by Linda on April 23, 2017

Found in the young adult section of the library, as I was reading this book, I felt the cover should have notations that the some of the subject matter contained adult content. No doubt about it, the life of Eleanora Fagan was exceedingly difficult. Finding her voice and learning to accept the praise......more

Goodreads review by James on June 29, 2023

This book tells the story of who Billie Holliday was and what she did. Her life was brutal and she escaped in music. She is a figure in the world of jazz that is unique.......more