The Legendary Miss Lena Horne by Carole Boston Weatherford

Title: The Legendary Miss Lena Horne
By: Weatherford, Carole Boston
Published: 2017
Call #: xBiog Horne.L Weath.C

Elizabeth Zunon’s evocative oil paintings and cut paper collages add power to Carole Boston Weatherford’s compelling picture book biography (for grades 2 and up) about the brilliant actress, singer, and civil rights activist Lena Horne.  The book whisks the reader along as it shows how Horne, as a child, lived out of a suitcase as she toured with her entertainer mother.  Zunon’s illustrations do a great job capturing time and place as Lena auditions for the Cotton Club during the Great Depression, and rises to prominence soon after, but all along encountering bigotry and racism on the road and in Hollywood.  We see moments of triumph followed by moments of loneliness.  Every double page spread captures the multifaceted nature of Horne’s career, activism, and personality.  Young readers will be happy to make the acquaintance of this extraordinary talent.

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