Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Power of a Protest Song

by Gary Golio

Overview

The audience was completely silent the first time Billie Holiday performed a song called "Strange Fruit." In the 1930s, Billie was known as a performer of jazz and blues music, but this song wasn't either of those things. It was a song about injustice, and it would change her life forever.

Discover how two outsiders—Billie Holiday, a young black woman raised in poverty, and Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants—combined their talents to create a song that challenged racism and paved the way for the Civil Rights movement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467751230
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/01/2017
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Gary Golio is an artist and acclaimed picture book author. His Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow was a New York Times bestseller. Find out more about him at www.garygolio.com.

Charlotte Riley-Webb, a professional visual artist with a career that spans more than 40 years, resides in the Atlanta area. Find her online at www.charlotterileywebb.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/13/2017
Golio’s powerful narrative turns on two moments plucked from Billie Holiday’s career. The first: quitting Artie Shaw’s band after enduring the latest in a long line of discriminatory incidents. The second key moment is Holiday’s first performance of “Strange Fruit,” which initially elicits discomfort from the audience (“A few people nearly got up from their seats and left”), followed by thunderous applause. Riley-Webb (Seed Magic) uses sweeping, flame-like brushes of color to heighten the story’s emotional intensity; the lyrics of the song appear in the closing pages, along with in-depth details about Holiday’s career and the cultural context of “Strange Fruit,” including the history of lynching in the United States. It’s a potent reminder of the power of art to combat intolerance and hate. Ages 8–12. Author’s agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

The first thing that readers will notice about this unconventional picture book is the colorful, freestyle form of its illustrations. The pictures flow and clash much as an improvised jazz song might produce both melody and dissonance. This style provides a perfect background for the story of song stylist Billie Holiday, whose rusty, whiskey-hued voice created a new palette of sound for sad, bluesy ballads. Although it is a picture book, this deals with serious subjects including the cruelty of racism and the unthinkable practice of lynching of black men in the Jim Crow south. For that reason, it may be reserved for children older than the usual picture book readers. Holiday’s abusive childhood is mentioned, but not fleshed out in lurid detail. The same applies to her slide into addiction. However, the book explains the harsh reality of being a black performer who was allowed to sing for white audiences but not to move among them. Holiday’s performance of her trademark song is important because it reveals her outrage about racism and the difficult decision to address it. Composer and lyricist Abel Meeropol deserves a book of his own for his left-wing politics and his adoption of the children of convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. It may have benefited the publisher to include a CD of Holiday’s rendition so readers could appreciate the impact of her voice and the heart-tearing despair that describes men as “Black Body swinging in the Southern breeze,/ Strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree.” Readers will need to find a recording of their own, perhaps online. Backmatter includes the full lyrics of the song, a detailed description of the controversial presentation and reception of the song, a biography of Holiday with a more detailed description of her troubled life, source notes, and a bibliography. Recommended for music, women’s, and black history collections. Reviewer: Lois Rubin Gross; Ages 8 to 12.

Children's Literature - Lois Rubin Gross

01/01/2017
Gr 3–6—Singer Billie Holiday had a knack for jazz improvisation and dramatic performance, but she emerged from a difficult childhood into a world that didn't support black success. In 1938, she found a singing home in an integrated Greenwich Village club called Cafe Society. When its owner asked Holiday to sing Abel Meeropol's haunting song "Strange Fruit," she made it her own, eventually performing it throughout the country. While a song about lynching may seem a challenging choice for a picture book subject, the combination of words and images here is strikingly effective. Riley-Webb's emotionally expressive illustrations are as forceful as the topic. Done with acrylic paint and tissue collage, they are full of rough textures, curved lines, and grasping hands. In a smoothly written text, with important ideas emphasized in a larger font, Golio briefly summarizes Holiday's early life and career. He leaves out most of the seamier details and concludes his narrative with accounts of two early performances of this haunting song, the first in a private apartment in Harlem and the second in the club. Back matter includes the lyrics and two pages of exposition that define lynching and describe the subsequent history of the song and the singer. VERDICT This is not an easy book, but it is powerful—just like its theme. Consider for guided in-depth discussions on Billie Holiday and U.S. history.—Kathleen Isaacs, Children's Literature Specialist, Pasadena, MD

School Library Journal

★ 2016-11-02
Lynching: a strange and difficult but important topic for a song—and for this picture book.Golio crafts an honest biography of African-American jazz singer Billie Holiday, whose light skin, penchant for improvisation, and commitment to social justice often made her the center of heated controversy. As Holiday once said: "Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough." As "one of the first black singers to work in an all-white band," Billie excelled until her handlers asked her never to talk with customers or walk alone, to use service elevators, and to stay upstairs until performance time—all to convince white patrons that the venues where she sang remained racially segregated. When Jewish songwriter Abel Meeropol wrote "Strange Fruit," about the lynching of blacks, for Billie to perform, Meeropol's rendition of it failed to move her. Once she made it her own, however, she stunned audiences with her performance. This picture book emphasizes that the arts not only entertain, but can also be powerful change agents. Riley-Webb's moving, richly textured illustrations, rendered in acrylics with tissue collages on canvas paper, reflect the constant motion of jazz and the striking excitement of improvisation. The informative backmatter expands upon Holiday's biographical details and offers narrative explanations of source quotes. A must-read, must-discuss that will speak to children and linger with adults.(Picture book/biography. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews