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bickie's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent discussion of Billie Holiday's early life and career culminating with the story of her decision to sing Abel Meeropol/Lewis Allan's song, "Strange Fruit," at the integrated Cafe Society night club and the subsequent response to it.
Oil-painted illustrations evoke the emotionality of jazz. The picture showing Abel singing "Strange Fruit" for Billie for the first time makes him look Black, and the picture showing Abel and Barney Josephson talking makes them both look Black. Teachers reading the book aloud should be prepared to explain that both were white Jews. Abel was born to Russian immigrants in the Bronx, and Barney was born in Trenton, NJ, to Latvian immigrants.
Oil-painted illustrations evoke the emotionality of jazz. The picture showing Abel singing "Strange Fruit" for Billie for the first time makes him look Black, and the picture showing Abel and Barney Josephson talking makes them both look Black. Teachers reading the book aloud should be prepared to explain that both were white Jews. Abel was born to Russian immigrants in the Bronx, and Barney was born in Trenton, NJ, to Latvian immigrants.
jaij7's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! Powerfully written and illustrated. This book is great.
beths0103's review against another edition
5.0
Powerful picture book about the story of how Strange Fruit came to be Billie Holiday's most well-known song despite the fact that her record label refused to record it.
kfernandez's review against another edition
5.0
This is a truly brave and important story that brings to light a part of history that many choose to ignore.
babayagareads's review against another edition
5.0
This is a great learning tool for a multitude of ages and subjects. The art is phenomenal, full of metaphors and hidden historical contexts, like the hands gripping at the young 10 year old Billie to represent her rape and the splattered blood from the lyrics to represent the literal blood that flowed during lynchings. The additional notes at the book's end are straightforward and fall into my favorite kind of teaching, knowing that kids are smart and capable of learning complex concepts.
amysutton's review against another edition
3.0
This short book is part autobiography, part explanation of Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday. This book was a nice introduction to Billie Holiday's song, but I really would have liked more detail within the story as to the impact that the song had. Considering how chilling and poignant the song itself is, I expected a similar tone in the book. This would still be a nice way to share protest songs with upper elementary students, though.
I received a copy of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received a copy of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
nerfherder86's review against another edition
4.0
This is an unusual picture book, one all about a song. I was surprised to see this particular song used as the basis for a picture book, but one for older readers makes sense; it's a historically significant song that needs some background explanation for children. In a way the book is a little bit of a biography of Billie Holiday, briefly detailing her hardships growing up and where she was in her career when she was given this song to sing, having quit Artie Shaw's band after becoming fed up with the segregation she faced. The book shows how her passionate rendition of it made it her signature song, and explains why it is a protest song against lynching. The illustrations are wonderful, very jazzy and impressionistic, in bold acrylic colors. All direct quotations are sourced, and the book has a bibliography and an author's note that gives the definition and origin of lynching and further information on the composer, Abel Meeropol, and Billie Holiday's life.
backonthealex's review against another edition
3.0
This picture book biography for older readers tells two stories that are intertwined. First, it is the story of Billie Holiday’s life, a life was never easy right from the beginning. Her mother left her with an older half sister when she was a baby. At 10, Billie ended up in a reform school for something that wasn’t her fault. After she finally went to NYC to live with her mother, both of them ended up in jail when Billie was 14.
But Billie Holiday loved to sing and jazz was her style of choice. She was hired by white bandleader Artie Shaw, and even though she was a spotlight singer on his tours, she still faced discrimination everywhere they went because of her race. Finally, Billie Holiday had had enough and she quit Artie Shaw’s band. Striking out on her own, she began to sing in a new Greenwich Village club called Cafe Society, a place with black and white customers and performers weren’t segregated.
Cafe Society was opened by Barney Josephson, and it was here, in 1939, that Billie Holiday premiered a radical new song called “Strange Fruit.” High school teacher, Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants, was so outraged by America’s racism and especially the violence faced by African Americans, that he wrote “Strange Fruit” after seeing a picture of a lynching. And that is exactly was “Strange Fruit” is about. And when Billie Holiday sang it at Cafe Society, it was always the last song of the night and all activity stopped until she was done.
Strange Fruit is a very powerful biography about Billie Holiday, one that brings to light the way she was regarded because of her race from childhood on, and the shameful treatment she received because of it, despite being a popular black female singer with whites in the 1930s and 1940s.
And yet, as compelling and powerful as Strange Fruit is, I question who it if for. It is recommended for readers age 8+, but some young readers may be too sensitive for the material covered. I think it feels like a book that should be given to readers a few years older, readers who may have a better background understanding of what life was like for African Americans in this country before the Civil Rights Movement.
Since “Strange Fruit” was a signature song for Billie Holiday, I think that as a book for older readers, Strange Fruit could be paired with Marilyn Nelson’s book A Wreath for Emmett Till to give students a more balanced picture, and a deeper understanding of the despicable practice lynching. I would have like to see more about Abel Meeropol but could not find a children’s book about the author of such a formidable protest song. I do know that Meeropol taught in the Bronx, and that he and his wife Anne adopted the two sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 after they were executed.
Riley-Webb’s illustrations done in boldly textured brush stokes using acrylics and tissue collage, are as colorful and dynamic as the jazz Billie Holiday sang, and the sometimes light, sometimes dark images give the story being told a very dramatic intensity.
The lyrics to “Strange Fruit” and additional biographical information about Billie Holiday are included in the back matter.
This book is recommended for readers age 8+ but I would definitely go older
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley
But Billie Holiday loved to sing and jazz was her style of choice. She was hired by white bandleader Artie Shaw, and even though she was a spotlight singer on his tours, she still faced discrimination everywhere they went because of her race. Finally, Billie Holiday had had enough and she quit Artie Shaw’s band. Striking out on her own, she began to sing in a new Greenwich Village club called Cafe Society, a place with black and white customers and performers weren’t segregated.
Cafe Society was opened by Barney Josephson, and it was here, in 1939, that Billie Holiday premiered a radical new song called “Strange Fruit.” High school teacher, Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants, was so outraged by America’s racism and especially the violence faced by African Americans, that he wrote “Strange Fruit” after seeing a picture of a lynching. And that is exactly was “Strange Fruit” is about. And when Billie Holiday sang it at Cafe Society, it was always the last song of the night and all activity stopped until she was done.
Strange Fruit is a very powerful biography about Billie Holiday, one that brings to light the way she was regarded because of her race from childhood on, and the shameful treatment she received because of it, despite being a popular black female singer with whites in the 1930s and 1940s.
And yet, as compelling and powerful as Strange Fruit is, I question who it if for. It is recommended for readers age 8+, but some young readers may be too sensitive for the material covered. I think it feels like a book that should be given to readers a few years older, readers who may have a better background understanding of what life was like for African Americans in this country before the Civil Rights Movement.
Since “Strange Fruit” was a signature song for Billie Holiday, I think that as a book for older readers, Strange Fruit could be paired with Marilyn Nelson’s book A Wreath for Emmett Till to give students a more balanced picture, and a deeper understanding of the despicable practice lynching. I would have like to see more about Abel Meeropol but could not find a children’s book about the author of such a formidable protest song. I do know that Meeropol taught in the Bronx, and that he and his wife Anne adopted the two sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1953 after they were executed.
Riley-Webb’s illustrations done in boldly textured brush stokes using acrylics and tissue collage, are as colorful and dynamic as the jazz Billie Holiday sang, and the sometimes light, sometimes dark images give the story being told a very dramatic intensity.
The lyrics to “Strange Fruit” and additional biographical information about Billie Holiday are included in the back matter.
This book is recommended for readers age 8+ but I would definitely go older
This book was an EARC received from NetGalley
rainbowbookworm's review against another edition
3.0
The thing about picture books is that they often offer simplistic views of a complex issue. Nonetheless, this slim volume can be used to start teaching children not only about the song, but topics such as the Jim Crow south, Harlem Renaissance, jazz, blues, etc.