SATA
ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: Make a Pretty Sound
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.tracitodd.com/
CITY: Queens
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Daughter of an educator and an activist; father was a civil rights activist in Chicago, IL.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Editor and writer. Children’s book editor, 20+ years.
AVOCATIONS:Sesame Street vintage toy collecting.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August, 2021, Karen Cruze, review of Nina: A Story of Nina Simone, p. 46; January 1, 2023, Sarah Hunter, review of Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes, p. 51.
BookPage, January, 2025, Alice Cary, review of Make a Pretty Sound: A Story of Ella Jenkins, p. 29.
Horn Book, November-December, 2021, Sam Bloom, review of Nina, p. 144.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2006, review of A Is for Astronaut: Exploring Space from A to Z, p. 969; September 1, 2022, review of Stacey Abrams and the Fight to Vote; November 15, 2022, review of Holding Her Own; November 1, 2024, review of Make a Pretty Sound.
ONLINE
Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/ (October 4, 2021), Rachel Kramer Bussel, “Nina Simone Children’s Picture Book Biography Explores Her Civil Rights Activism and Career.”
PAVEing a Blog, https://harrybrake.com/ (October 8, 2023), Harry Brake, “Talking Band, Manga, Nina Simone, Setting Your Own Rules, with Children’s Author/Editor Traci N. Todd.”
School Library Journal, https://afuse8production.slj.com/ (September 14, 2021), Betsy Bird, “Nina: A Story of Nina Simone—an Interview with Author Traci N. Todd.”
Traci N. Todd website, https://www.tracitodd.com (April 24, 2025).
This is me.
Traci N. Todd is curious. She reads a lot and writes a lot and is always wondering about the connections between things. She was born to write nonfiction.
The daughter of an educator and a civil rights activist, her childhood was full of story and song. She was raised to write the truth with music.
Traci is the author of several award-winning books, including Nina: A Story of Nina Simone and Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes. She has also been an editor of children’s books for over 20 years.
Traci lives in Queens, New York with her parter and her collection of vintage “Sesame Street” toys.
Talking Band, Manga, Nina Simone, Setting Your Own Rules, with Children’s Author /Editor Traci N. Todd.
Posted on October 8, 2023 by Harry Brake
Certainly it was a full day for Woodbridge High student’s podcast studio. Yet, the ability to connect to authors on a level outside, and inside literacy emphasized that writing has no borders. Thanks again to Biblion and Browseabout Book stores, after arranging a visit with signed books to Woodbridge’s Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, children’s book editor and writer Traci N. Todd, whose work centers on Black culture and social justice, sat down with our student podcast interview team. Followng Ms. Traci N. Todd’s Woodbridge visit, she went on to be an integral part of the History Book Festival in Lewes.
From the time relevant issue of Manga and illustrated books, to the process and technical ins and outs of writing, to simply inspiration and living a good life, Ms. Traci N. Todd provided gifts of wisdom and instruction that have led her down paths through Ezra Jack Keats and poet Robert Frost. With House Bill 198, there are so many niches that school librarians and libraries can offer that connect to black culture that have impacts on all of us today. From not taking for granted the naming of our elementary school Phillis Wheatley, to how our decisions today impact all races, this is an opportunity for all schools to find creative steps forward in enhancing the curriculum and inspiring youth. From clubs like Girls Who Code to Black Girls Who Dive recently represented at Coast Day in Lewes, school librarians and libraries need to thrive and provide gateways for opportunity for students, not merely textbook page turning assignments to cover a bill’s requirement. HB 198 should inspire our educational systems, not belabor it.
It is interesting as you experience the series of experiences the last few days the Walter P.J Gilefski Media Center has had the privilege to be involved with. When you include students voices and involvement from the very beginning, more positive results occur in all that happens after. I thought this after Manga had been pulled from a nearby school library district, as also thinking about how individuals other than youth are consulted when it comes to what is appropriate, when students can visit their own school libraries, who consults the youth when a decision is made about removing a librarian or library, and how areas are set up in new libraries with youth are not consulted. How much different would scenarios play out when youth’s voices are part of the planning, collection management, building, and staffing of facilities, individuals, and resources that directly motivate and promote literacy?
Too often enough, youth are the last group consulted or informed of decisions that involve them from day to day, from plans of new businesses and opportunities in communities, to school librarian and library access, to opinions and views on the layout of a media center, to the removal of the very resources that help lift an individual up in a moment of need. Voice. With Traci N. Todd’s visit, many of the students realized they can be, and should be, a part of their own futures and have a say and a direct impact on decisions they are often left out of.
One of the best stories Ms. Traci N. Todd shared with her experience with Phillis Wheatley was the fact that when she told and shared that she had written her book, Holding Her Own – The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes by herself, elementary students applauded her and congratulated her. They congratulated her work she finished, just as Ms. Traci N. Todd was encouraging each of these young people to follow their dreams as well.
I felt we need to each do our own part to continue to support the fact that school libraries and librarians in the state of Delaware are always a staple of anyone’s education, and continue to bring connections inside and outside of the classroom for everyone to realize their potential. Working with independent books stores, community event planners, and more, much more in education is achieved and realized. Thank you Ms. Traci N. Todd for sharing so much for so many in one day and thank you Billion and Browseabout bookstores for putting piece of real life in so many student’s hands.
NINA: A STORY OF NINA SIMONE – An Interview with Author Traci N. Todd
September 14, 2021 by Betsy Bird Leave a Comment
There are moments when you see the cover of a book and your jaw just drops. Just falls right off, hits the floor, and rolls under the credenza.
Here.
I’ll hand you an example:
There you go. Now fetch your jaw and wipe off those dust bunnies before you go reattaching it.
NINA, which releases on September 28th, is not the first picture book biography of Nina Simone out there. It will not be the last picture book biography of Nina Simone ever written. But what it does it does exceedingly well. Essentially, the book highlights a slice of Nina Simone’s life, hammers home the greater implications of her existence, and sets her world and times in context. In other words, it does what it set out to do. And I, for my part, set out to discover how author Traci N. Todd was able to write this book as well as she did.
Betsy Bird: Traci, thank you so much for joining me today. It seems ridiculous to say that Nina Simone is having a moment right now, since it seems that there was never a time when Nina Simone wasn’t having a moment. But this past summer we saw her presence in the documentary SUMMER OF SOUL and the lost footage of her is just stunning to behold after all these years. What, for you, was the impetus to tell her story in a picture book biography format now?
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Traci N. Todd: I actually started writing this book about 12 years ago. I grew up listening to Nina Simone, and as a young adult, I became curious about her life. So I read her autobiography and just knew there was a children’s book in there. I wrote a draft that just centered on the moment when Nina (then Eunice) is giving the recital and her parents are asked to give up their seats for a white couple. That’s really where the story started for me. I wasn’t bold enough to do anything with that first (terrible!) draft, but I kept picking at it over the years, and finally, about five years ago I was brave enough to share the latest draft with my friends Stacey Barney–who was at Putnam at the time–and Steve Malk, who became my agent. When Christian Robinson signed on to illustrate, I was over the moon! But we had to wait for him to become available. And here we are!
BB: Worth it, I’d say. So I’m curious about your methodology. A human life comes to us in bits and pieces. The biographer’s job is to find the story to that life. That story, however, could be interpreted any number of ways by any number of biographers. Were there any sources in particular that you turned to that helped you tell the tale of Nina’s life best?
TNT: Nina’s autobiography I Put A Spell on You was key. If there were facts that could be verified, I looked for other sources, but I took her recollections of personal moments and how she felt in them at face value. I’m so grateful that she spent so much time describing her childhood in that book. That allowed me to present her as a more rounded human being and to make connections between her childhood and who she became as an adult.
I always knew I wasn’t going to tell the full story of Nina’s life, and when I decided to focus on her activism, everything else sort of fell into place.
BB: Well, I love how you tell this story. And I love the lines like, “politeness had gotten her people nothing.” The last word in the text of her story is the word “hope”. Was that an intentional move on your part? Did you have any difficulty figuring out where to end her story?
TNT: Thank you! I loved writing those lines. They’re where I tried to channel Nina’s Nina-ness. I think sometimes we’re afraid of anger, especially in children. And the “angry Black woman” trope still stings. But human beings get angry, and anger can be powerful. Of course Nina was mad–she had every right to be! And she demanded respect–you did not want to cross her! Lines like the one you mention allowed me to tap into all of that.
Ending the book was hard. At one point the ending was lyrics from “Young, Gifted, and Black, but that wasn’t working. I started reading commentary from educators and other picture book writers about how to talk to young children about hard truths. The running theme seemed to be to move through them with children and look toward the future. I was also revising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and that seemingly endless cadence. In that moment, I was done with grownups. I wanted to focus my energy on empowering children to do better than we have done. And that’s why I ended the book with hope.
BB: Your text was paired with Christian Robinson, an artist that can do moral complexity on the page but also has a child-friendliness that brings his subjects to life. And, come to think of it, the first book I ever saw him do was the picture book biography HARLEM’S LITTLE BLACKBIRD: THE STORY OF FLORENCE MILLS. With his specific style of illustration, was his the type of art you envisioned for the book? How do you think it came out in the end?
TNT: I think Christian’s work is the perfect pairing. My writing style is… maybe a little more mature than what you might typically see in a picture book. And my style, plus Nina’s story is not a warm-and-fuzzy mix! But Christian’s art softens everything in the most wonderful way. And he’s just brilliant. That spread with the girls who were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing takes my breath away. And the cover!! Christian has his own strong connection to Nina, and it’s very clear in the art for this book. It has been a great honor to work with him.
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BB: I’m sure that there was plenty that you couldn’t include in this book. Was there anything you particularly wanted to mention but that ended up on the cutting room floor in the end?
TNT: You know, I wonder if I showed enough of Nina’s joy. I cut the story off before the Harlem Cultural Festival and various other performances where she was in her full light and basking in all that love. The portrait I’ve presented is specific, and I wonder if I might have broadened it out just a bit.
BB: Finally, what are you working on next?
TNT: I’ve been busy in the last five-or-so years! Next fall I have Stacey Abrams and the Fight to Vote coming from Harper. In 2023 I have Make A Pretty Sound: The Story of Ella Jenkins coming from Chronicle, Holding Her Own: The Extraordinary Life of Cartoonist Jackie Ormes coming from Scholastic, and Hello, Beautiful–my first picture book that’s not a biography–coming from Viking. And I’ve just sent a bunch of new manuscripts to Steve, so… more to come!
BB: AH! These all sound fantastic! I think I speak for everyone when I say I cannot wait.
Big thanks to Traci for answering all my questions and to Kaitlin Kneafsey and the folks at Penguin Young Readers for connecting us. NINA: A Story of Nina Simone is on bookstore and library shelves everywhere September 28th.
Nina Simone Children’s Picture Book Biography Explores Her Civil Rights Activism And Career
ByRachel Kramer Bussel, Former Contributor. I write about books, publishing, authors and readers
Oct 04, 2021, 06:58am EDT
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nina simone book children's picture book biography traci todd christian robinson
New children's picture book biography Nina: A Story of Nina Simone by Traci N. Todd, illustrated by ... [+]G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
A new children’s picture book biography, Nina: A Story of Nina Simone (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers), written by Traci N. Todd and illustrated by Christian Robinson, released September 28, brings the famed singer’s career and civil rights activism to light. Aimed at children ages four through eight, the 56-page title is the first such picture book biography of Simone written and illustrated by Black creatives.
While Todd has written other children's books in the course of her job as a children's book editor, such as Henry's Parade and Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, she said that Nina “is the first book that's truly mine.” Todd said in an interview that Simone was one of the artists her father played when she was growing up, and she later curious about her and read her biography. Todd was intrigued by a story about Simone, then known by her birth name, Eunice Kathleen Waymon, giving a recital at her hometown library at age 12 and encountering racism. As Todd puts it about a story she recounts in Nina, “Just as she was about to start playing, an usher removed her parents so a white couple could sit. Her parents were forced to take seats in the back. Eunice watched all of this and refused to play until her parents returned to their original seats.”
Of this incident, Todd says, “There was so much here that I thought a child could relate to: Being excited about something and ready to do your best. Love for your parents. Confusion about being separated from them. And an accessible demonstration of racism. That moment in the library is where the story started for me. My first draft of the manuscript was just about that moment.” The book uses that event as a starting point to go on to explore how Simone crafted her image, why she changed her name, how her singing career progressed and why she was motivated to speak out about civil rights.
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Asked why Nina Simone’s story is important for young readers and what she hopes they take away from the book, Todd said, “Nina Simone was magnificent. And she was unapologetically Black. That is something to be celebrated all day every day. Often, when we talk about the civil rights movement, we talk about it as if it was this march toward peace, love, and understanding. In many ways it was not that. It was about Black people being tired. About Black people taking back what no one had the right to take in the first place: Freedom. Humanity. My father—who was also a civil rights activist in Chicago—used to say that ever since the Constitution declared us three-fifths human, we've been fighting the United States for that two-fifths back. Nina's story exists in that space. She fought for Black liberation.”
traci todd children's book author nina simone
Nina: A Story of Nina Simone author Traci N. Todd decided to center the book on Simone's activism in ... [+]Jacob Chabot
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Todd had to take some time to decide what to hone in on in telling Simone’s multi-faceted story in picture book form, but said that once she figured out that she wanted center the story on Simone’s activism, “it was easier to decide what details stayed and which ones went. I wanted to show how the events of her childhood shaped who she became as an adult, so I spent a lot of time in the book describing her childhood experiences. I also wanted to show how multifaceted racism is, and that good people can also be racist...I wanted to paint a picture of how messy and ubiquitous racism is in the hope that children will ask questions and adults will start conversations.”
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One such example is Mrs. Miller, Simone’s mother’s boss, who introduced Simone (then Eunice) to a piano teacher who helped Simone’s playing flourish, but wouldn’t allow her to play with her white son. Todd also details Simone’s rejection from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia because of the color of her skin, her foray into playing in Atlantic City clubs, and the confluence of events that led her to bring issues of civil rights into her music. Of this decision, Todd writes, “She called out Alabama and Mississippi by name. her lyrics were so fed up and true, they couldn’t be spoken in polite company. But Nina was done being polite. As far as she could tell, politeness had gotten her people nothing.”
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Of working with illustrator Robinson, who received a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for his art in Last Stop on Market Street, has illustrated New York TimesNYT +2.2% bestselling children’s books, and has collaborated on a TargetTGT +0.2% collection, Todd called the experience an “honor and privilege.” Robinson worked from Todd’s finished text, and was “charged with taking the text and making it his own.” Todd said of his artwork, “Christian's illustrations add both softness and power to the text. In painful moments like the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, Christian both softened those edges and showed the power of Nina's musical response in one image. In Christian's hands, Nina's piano strings become the bars of a jail cell. Protest marches are reflected in the lid of the piano as she plays. And there are moments of quiet, smallness, and joy. Christian made this book a work of art.”
Upcoming titles for Todd are a book about children’s folk singer Ella Jenkins, a fall 2022 book, Stacey Abrams and the Fight to Vote, and 2023 titles including a book about cartoonist Jackie Ormes, and Hello, Beautiful, “about the power and beauty of being human and seeing the humanity of others.”
Todd, Traei N. A IS FOR ASTRONAUT: Exploring Space from A to Z Illus. by Sara Gillingham Chronicle (40 pp.) $14.95 Oct. 1, 2006 ISBN: 0-8118-5462-0
A mixed bag of stock outer space themed images, familiar archival photographs and colorful retrofeeling illustrations are partnered with the alphabet to introduce young readers to a wide variety of space topics, ranging from freeze-dried ice cream to Yuri Gagarin, the first human space traveler. Each letter, presented in alphabetical order, is allotted at least its own full page, and some letters, like E, which represents Earth, get entire double-page spreads. Each letter introduces from one to three space topics, which each feature an image and corresponding short descriptive statement. Some statements are silly, like "golf balls left on the Moon by astronaut Alan Shepard," while others are serious, such as "Flares: bursts of energy that flash from the Sun." Although the short statements could be more substantive together with the accompanying images, this text presents just enough information to launch young readers into a quest for deeper knowledge. (Picture book. 4-7)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2006 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Todd, Traci N.: A Is for Astronaut: Exploring Space from A to Z." Kirkus Reviews, vol. 74, no. 18, 15 Sept. 2006, p. 969. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A152575409/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7f6eed54. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.
Nina: A Story of Nina Simone. By Traci Todd. Illus. by Christian Robinson. Sept. 2021. 56p. Putnam, $18.99 (9781524737283). Gr. 1-3. 782.42164092.
Nina Simone's beauty and talent is given prominent expression by multiaward-winning Robinson in this picture-book biography. With artwork highlighting the musician's profile, Robinson emphasizes Simone's noble stature as a musician who combined her love of classical music with church standards and jazz to create a unique style that soared to prominence alongside her dedication to the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Often shown facing her piano, whether on her father's lap or at Carnegie Hall, the woman born as Eunice Kathleen Waymon is always foremost in the images, while Todd's prose eloquently tells her story from childhood to fame. Woven through the narrative is Simone's lifelong awareness of the injustices Black Americans faced, from watching her parents forced out of the front row to make room for a white couple during a childhood recital in her hometown to learning from prominent friends about the tumult and violence faced by Black people in the south as the movement for equality gained steam. Robinson's illustrations subtly portray the subject's transformation, particularly in her clothes, which gradually move from more subdued dresses to her bold, colorful, and Afrocentric signature style. In her end material, Todd provides additional biographical details for readers interested in gleaning more about the renowned woman. A worthy biography for all collections and especially for those that serve music-loving children.--Karen Cruze
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Cruze, Karen. "Nina: A Story of Nina Simone." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 22, Aug. 2021, pp. 46+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A689976790/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e961c0b8. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.
* Nina: A Story of Nina Simone
by Traci N. Todd; illus. by Christian Robinson
Primary, Intermediate Putnam 64 pp. g
9/21 978-0-06-291564-1 $19.99
Pianist, singer, and composer Nina Simone was born Eunice Waymon in rural North Carolina in 1933, a child "who had music on the inside." Treated by turns as a prodigy, curiosity, and nuisance, after high school Eunice left North Carolina for NYC and Juilliard. After a series of indignities and disappointments, she began performing at a nightclub in Atlantic City; her growing fame led Eunice to change her name to Nina Simone in an attempt to hide her "unholy" music from her mother. At the same time, the momentum of the ongoing civil rights movement was a "relentless, demanding" drumbeat that proved impossible to ignore; and as Simone felt more pressure (internal and external) to speak out against racism, she decided she was done playing nice, as politeness "had gotten her people nothing." Robinson (You Matter, rev. 9/20; Milo Imagines the World, rev. 3/21) punctuates this section with flame-like cut paper and sooty smudges symbolizing the "steady, rising roar" of injustice, culminating in a double-page spread showing Nina and her band playing against a fiery backdrop. Todd ends her unflinching narrative with a perfectly placed, direct-address line: "And when she sang of Black children--you lovely, precious dreams--her voice sounded like hope." This unexpected, yet needed, outpouring of love is the perfect end to a stunning book. An author's note "About Nina Simone" and a bibliography are appended.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Sources, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.hbook.com/magazine/default.asp
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Bloom, Sam. "Nina: A Story of Nina Simone." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 97, no. 6, Nov.-Dec. 2021, pp. 144+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A682425356/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=488888af. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.
Todd, Traci N. STACEY ABRAMS AND THE FIGHT TO VOTE Harper/HarperCollins (Children's None) $18.99 8, 30 ISBN: 978-0-06-313977-0
What would Stacey Abrams' Black political female predecessors say to her if they were alive today?
Todd and Freeman bring this scenario to life in their creative biography of Georgia-based politician Abrams. Voting rights champions across two centuries--Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, Septima Poinsette Clark, and Fannie Lou Hamer--speak to one another about Abrams as they reflect on the barriers that national and state governments have systematically erected to prevent specific populations from voting. While the text focuses on the Black vote, the backmatter describes many other groups that have been excluded from voting throughout American history. This biography begins with Abrams' parents, who also, growing up in the Jim Crow South, faced obstacles that required courage and tenacity to overcome. Abrams' parents taught their children to take care of one another and took them to the polls every election to show them that voting was how to take care of your community. The daughter of a librarian, Stacey loved books and using "big, juicy words." As the book traces Abrams' successes at Spelman College and her political accomplishments, the brightly colored digitally rendered illustrations, featuring striking portraits of Abrams and others that fill the page, emphasize her determination despite disappointments, and the more faded images of her political predecessors remind readers that they speak from the past. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A brilliant introduction to a powerful Black female politician and voting rights activist. (author's note, biographical notes, voting rights timeline, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 7-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Todd, Traci N.: STACEY ABRAMS AND THE FIGHT TO VOTE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A715352986/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e4962702. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.
Todd, Traci N. HOLDING HER OWN Orchard/Scholastic (Children's None) $21.99 1, 3 ISBN: 978-1-338-30590-6
An effervescent tribute to Jackie Ormes, widely considered to be the first nationally syndicated Black woman cartoonist in the United States.
In a buoyant profile and then a more detailed afterword, Todd takes her scandalously little-known subject from an exuberant child who "fills every space she can find" with drawings to the successful creator of several pre- and post-World War II comic strips featuring strong-minded young Black characters--notably Patty-Jo and Torchy Brown--who confront prejudice and fear in "quiet, mighty ways." Reflecting her prominence in Chicago's African American community, Ormes cuts a stylish figure in the jazzy illustrations, and Wright slips in samples of Ormes' work to capture its vitality as well as the "Jackie joy" that characterized it. "I was always fighting battles," she said, and along with championing women's rights to work (and play: One cartoon reproduced here has Patty-Jo, dressed in tatters and holding a football, indignantly telling her mother, "What'cha mean it's no game for girls? We got feet too, ain't we?"), she was active enough in social causes and the early civil rights movement to be investigated by the FBI. Rather than complete this picture of her life, the author and the illustrator leave a blank page to represent the decades between her retirement from comics and her death in 1985, but there's enough here to keep readers marveling at her distinctive character and achievements and likely wondering why it's taken this long to discover them. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Long-overdue but welcome recognition for a pioneering graphic artist. (artist's note, bibliography, photos) (Picture-book biography. 7-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2022 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Todd, Traci N.: HOLDING HER OWN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2022. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A726309435/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1fd4f940. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.
Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes. By Traci N. Todd. Illus. by Shannon Wright. Jan. 2023.48p. Scholastic/Orchard, $21.99 (9781338305906). Gr. 2-5.741.5973
Following the success of Nina (2021). Todd offers another engaging picture book biography of a Black woman artist in this account of the life and times of Jackie Ormes, the first Black woman to have a nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip. Jaunty artwork by comics artist Wright (Twins, 2020) perfectly sets the tone with bright colors, visual references to classic comic strip conventions, and animated versions of Ormes' iconic cartoon characters Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo. Ormes' varied career is fascinating, and Todd's engrossing and well-researched text really does it justice, describing her skill with language in her newspaper columns, the sly awareness at work in her comic strips, and the philanthropy her success allowed her to perform. Along with that success, however, came heightened attention from federal agencies suspicious of powerful Black Americans: the FBI trailed her for a decade. Todd's ability to seamlessly weave in important historical context adds important depth to this celebratory and joyful story of a woman undauntedly following her passions. There's a dearth of books about Ormes for children, and her success is an important part of the history of American comics that is often overshadowed by more familiar names; this bright, informative, and inviting book should start to turn that tide. Extensive back matter bolsters the already strong content.--Sarah Hunter
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
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Hunter, Sarah. "Holding Her Own: The Exceptional Life of Jackie Ormes." Booklist, vol. 119, no. 9-10, 1 Jan. 2023, p. 51. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A735624317/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=e57d103a. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.
Todd, Traci N. MAKE A PRETTY SOUND Chronicle Books (Children's None) $19.99 1, 7 ISBN: 9781452170640
Ella Jenkins opened up the field of children's music and inspired generations.
"Ella is a South Side girl, / a Bronzeville bird, / skipping in streets that / smell of sweets and black-eyed peas." Todd's gorgeous free verse bursts with internal rhymes and delightful assonance and consonance as she tells the story of Ella Jenkins (b. 1924). Growing up in Chicago, Ella hears Count Basie and Cab Calloway, whose call-and-response music Todd aptly compares to "the beating / of wings." As she matures, Ella hears rhythms in the sounds of protesters taking a stand against segregation; by contrast, while waiting to be seated in restaurants that don't allow Black people like her, she's surrounded by silence. She moves to San Francisco's Codornices Village, where white and Black families live side by side. There she teaches music to children by day and at night listens to "Congas pop! / Claves click! / Maracas shick-shick-shick!" When Ella later returns to Chicago, the Civil Rights Movement is in full swing, and she notices "a bolder sound." She makes call-and-response records, travels the world teaching and performing, and receives a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; through it all, she's motivated by her belief that music can help listeners feel seen and understood. Davis' energetic art explodes with stars, word bubbles, musical notes, and bold colors--a perfect complement to Todd's lyrical language.
A hypnotic, dynamic biography of a woman who's always understood music's power to celebrate identity and spread joy. (author's note, timeline, further information about Ella Jenkins, selected bibliography)(Picture-book biography. 7-10)
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"Todd, Traci N.: MAKE A PRETTY SOUND." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Nov. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A813883516/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=50daa92c. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.
By Traci N. Todd
Illustrated by Eleanor Davis
Make a Pretty Sound: A Story of Ella Jenkins (Chronicle, $19.99, 9781452170640) describes a pioneer whose 70-year career introduced children to Black music and music from all over the world, earning her a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and the nickname "the First Lady of Children's Music."
Thanks to Traci N. Todd's rhythmic prose and Eleanor Davis' powerful illustrations, this picture book biography is beautifully grounded in the lively sights and sounds that inspired Jenkins. Jenkins grew up in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, amid "the blare and bleat of taxicabs, the screech of high-up trains, the tambourines that ring as preachers preach and choirs sing--amid the pool hall-gritty beat of the city." Todd shows how Jenkins listened to music from all over the world at record shops, and loved seeing Cab Calloway perform. Each spread is filled with lively city scenes, people and music--a church choir, a boy in a window playing a flute, Jenkins' uncle's harmonica serenade or Cab Calloway, dressed in a bright yellow suit, belting out, "Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi!" Davis uses a palette of textured bronzelike browns and reds along with a yellowish green and teal, giving the illustrations an old-fashioned feel that deftly imparts the grand span of Jenkins' life: She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2024.
As an adult, Jenkins moved to San Francisco and became a teacher before returning to Chicago, where she fought for civil rights. She appeared at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1964 rally at Soldier's Field, to perform "for the children, for the hope she feels when she hears their voices."
While the book's text immerses young readers in the variety of personalities and sounds that defined Jenkins' musical life, these details are more explicitly spelled out in an accompanying timeline, lengthy afterword and bibliography. As a result, the book can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers, from preschoolers to older elementary students, who can choose how much detail to absorb. Make a Pretty Sound highlights the life of a musical pioneer whose message continues to be vibrant and vital.
--Alice Cary
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 BookPage
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Cary, Alice. "Make a Pretty Sound." BookPage, Jan. 2025, p. 29. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A819405907/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=4b576c3c. Accessed 15 Mar. 2025.