SHE RAISED HER VOICE!: 50 BLACK WOMEN WHO SANG THEIR WAY INTO MUSIC HISTORY
JORDANNAH ELIZABETH, ILLUSTRATED BY BRIANA DENGOUE
� 2021 Running Press Kids
$17.99
158 pages

When she was just a little girl, author Jordannah Elizabeth loved listening closely to music and she paid attention to how it made her feel. Hearing Nina Simone, for instance, changed her life and sent her searching for other Black female singers and their works. There were many of them, and each inspired her to reach for her dreams.

By stepping back and forth through a century or so of song, and with a willingness to tell the unvarnished truth, Elizabeth's She Raised Her Voice!, illustrated by Briana Dengoue, weaves a wide range of biographies of Black female performers into a sort of literary old-school mix-tape.

She then extends your child's musical instruction by challenging young readers to sample the work of the singers in her book, and to pay attention to how it makes them feel.

The stories are varied. Take R&B singer Anita Baker. Her father was absent from the moment she was born and her mother died when Baker was just two years old. She grew up in foster care until she was 12, and then she was raised by her foster sister.

Singer Natalie Cole's father was wildly famous, but she wanted her own career. Sadly, though, after two successful albums, Natalie "began to do drugs that made her quite sick." She had to work very hard to get her career back on track.

Here are some others: The Pointer Sisters were only allowed to listen to Christian music when they were small. When singer Mahalia Jackson was "a wealthy international star," she experienced racism; singing, she figured, soothed the souls of those who were likewise going through the same thing. Libba Cotton was a left-handed guitar player, "making her stand out." Billie Holiday had the ability to improvise with both tune and lyrics. Bob Dylan was said to have fallen in love with Mavis Staples.

And if you think your child is way too young to start finding their dream, get this: Tracy Chapman started writing her own songs at age eight, the same age Gladys Knight won a TV-show contest. Janet Jackson performed with her brothers at age ten, the same age Bessie Smith started performing. Chaka Khan had her own band at age eleven.

Adults may be surprised at who's not in this book — Josephine Baker, Mary Wells, Miriam Makeba, Donna Summer — but these omissions leave room to continue the lessons for your 8-to-14-year-old by yourself.

But first, start here: She Raised Her Voice! is a book to tap into.