Ella Fitzgerald began her life as a singer on the stage of the famous Apollo Theatre when she was just sixteen years old, an unknown orphan in Harlem. Her rich voice and vocal innovations brought her fame, fortune, and a remarkable career that spanned over half a century and won her generations of fans around the world.

Acclaimed author Andrea Davis Pinkney has told Ella’s inspiring story in the voice of Scat Cat Monroe, a feline fan whose imagined narrative sings with the infectious rhythms of scat. Three-time Caldecott Honor winner Brian Pinkney’s dramatic perspectives and fantastical images are a jazzy improvisation all their own.

Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney have collaborated on several acclaimed picture books, including Alvin Ailey (a Reading Rainbow Selection) and the Caldecott Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Honor Book Duke Ellington.

The two also have their successful solo careers: Andrea has written several novels, picture books, and works of nonfiction, including Silent Thunder; Raven in a Dove House; Fishing Day, illustrated by Shane Evans; and the Coretta Scott King Honor Book Let It Shine. Brian illustrated Karen Hesse’s The Stone Lamp: Eight Stories of Hanukkah Through History, won the Coretta Scott King Medal for Kim Seigelson’s In the Time of the Drums, and has two other Caldecott Honors to his credit. He has also written and illustrated several of his own books, including Cosmo and the Robot.