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    Ella Fitzgerald

    Part of Up Close

    Author Tanya Lee Stone
    Ebook (EPUB)
    Penguin Young Readers | Viking Books for Young Readers
    On sale Jan 10, 2008 | 208 Pages | 9781440639111
    Age 12 and up | Grade 7 & Up
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    Discover the incredible life and enduring legacy of Ella Fitzgerald in this captivating entry in the Up Close biography series about twentieth-century America.

    That voice. That smooth, silky voice. It was Ella Fitzgerald’s trademark and the key to her success as a jazz singer. Her career began at a time when female musicians weren’t taken seriously and many music venues were segregated.

    Performing constantly led to distant relationships with friends and family, but Fitzgerald never gave up life on the road because her passion, above everything else, was pleasing her fans.

    Fitzgerald was an intensely private person, and parts of her life have been widely misreported because so little information about her is available. She also had a habit of altering the truth, often about her tumultuous childhood. A runaway at sixteen, Fitzgerald lived on the streets of Harlem and if not for a last-minute decision at an amateur night contest in 1934, the world might never have known the First Lady of Song.

    Tanya Lee Stone’s biography includes several never-before-published details about this legendary singer, offering a rare glimpse into her little-known lifetime.
    I love my job. There, I said it. I mean, who wouldn’t? I get to go to work in my pajamas, eat cold pizza for breakfast if I want, and make up stories all day. And hey, if I’m watching a movie or reading a book, that’s not goofing off–that’s called research.

    All right, it’s true, there is a lot more to it than that. I work hard. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. To get paid for doing what you absolutely love–that’s success in my book. I’ve been writing stories since I was seven years old. Some of them were even published–in the school newspaper. Hey, that counts! I went to a performing arts high school and studied theater and music. Then I moved to Ohio to attend Oberlin College, where I got my degree in English and studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

    After college, I hit Manhattan and got my first job as an editor. I thought it would be so glamorous! It wasn’t. But I did learn a lot of really important things, like how to write contracts, file in an organized fashion, walk not run, check facts, not use office time to talk to my boyfriend, secure photo permissions–you get the idea. Soon, though, I was reading and editing manuscripts. Now that was cool. I was an editor for more than a dozen years, before I moved away from the city to a place where there were more cows than editors.

    So, I went back to my roots and I started writing again. I think it worked out pretty well. I hope you do, too. Oh, and if you want to know some quirky things about me, I made a list.

    5 Things I Hate

    Fois gras
    The word “tasty”
    Driving slow
    Small talk
    Small mindedness

    5 Things I Love

    Chocolate-covered pretzels
    Singing in the rain
    Marathon movie-watching on a rainy day
    Broadway musicals
    Springer spaniels View titles by Tanya Lee Stone

    About

    Discover the incredible life and enduring legacy of Ella Fitzgerald in this captivating entry in the Up Close biography series about twentieth-century America.

    That voice. That smooth, silky voice. It was Ella Fitzgerald’s trademark and the key to her success as a jazz singer. Her career began at a time when female musicians weren’t taken seriously and many music venues were segregated.

    Performing constantly led to distant relationships with friends and family, but Fitzgerald never gave up life on the road because her passion, above everything else, was pleasing her fans.

    Fitzgerald was an intensely private person, and parts of her life have been widely misreported because so little information about her is available. She also had a habit of altering the truth, often about her tumultuous childhood. A runaway at sixteen, Fitzgerald lived on the streets of Harlem and if not for a last-minute decision at an amateur night contest in 1934, the world might never have known the First Lady of Song.

    Tanya Lee Stone’s biography includes several never-before-published details about this legendary singer, offering a rare glimpse into her little-known lifetime.

    Author

    I love my job. There, I said it. I mean, who wouldn’t? I get to go to work in my pajamas, eat cold pizza for breakfast if I want, and make up stories all day. And hey, if I’m watching a movie or reading a book, that’s not goofing off–that’s called research.

    All right, it’s true, there is a lot more to it than that. I work hard. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. To get paid for doing what you absolutely love–that’s success in my book. I’ve been writing stories since I was seven years old. Some of them were even published–in the school newspaper. Hey, that counts! I went to a performing arts high school and studied theater and music. Then I moved to Ohio to attend Oberlin College, where I got my degree in English and studied voice at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

    After college, I hit Manhattan and got my first job as an editor. I thought it would be so glamorous! It wasn’t. But I did learn a lot of really important things, like how to write contracts, file in an organized fashion, walk not run, check facts, not use office time to talk to my boyfriend, secure photo permissions–you get the idea. Soon, though, I was reading and editing manuscripts. Now that was cool. I was an editor for more than a dozen years, before I moved away from the city to a place where there were more cows than editors.

    So, I went back to my roots and I started writing again. I think it worked out pretty well. I hope you do, too. Oh, and if you want to know some quirky things about me, I made a list.

    5 Things I Hate

    Fois gras
    The word “tasty”
    Driving slow
    Small talk
    Small mindedness

    5 Things I Love

    Chocolate-covered pretzels
    Singing in the rain
    Marathon movie-watching on a rainy day
    Broadway musicals
    Springer spaniels View titles by Tanya Lee Stone

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