BOOK REVIEW: Ella Fitzgerald (little People, Big Dreams) by Isabel Sánchez Vegara

BOOK REVIEW: Ella Fitzgerald (little People, Big Dreams) by Isabel Sánchez Vegara

Quarto Group UK
February 2018
Hardcover, $19.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Children’s / Biography

8.5/10

The Little People, Big Dreams series of picture books was created by Isabel Sánchez Vegara after she became an aunty and realised her young nieces didn’t have a lot of books about influential women to turn to. As we know, Vegara has had no shortage of subject matter to choose from, with her books to date covering role models and trail blazers as diverse as Coco Chanel, Frida Kahlo, Jane Goodall, Anne Frank, Maya Angelou, Amelia Earhart, Marie Curie, Rosa Parks, Agatha Christie, Jane Austen, Audrey Hepburn and more.

Here, she turns her attention to jazz and blues legend Ella Fitzgerald, detailing a difficult childhood following her mother’s death in a car accident, her escape from reform school, and the rise of her stellar singing career.

Beautifully and engagingly illustrated by Bàrbara Alca, the duo bring Fitzgerald’s story – though simplified – to life, telling a story of triumph over adversity that all children need drilled into them at an early age.

Category: Book Reviews