You Sing and I Sing

A rhythmic and soaring nonfiction picture book biography about the life, music, and activism of children’s folk singer Ella Jenkins, featuring an epigraph she wrote!

Little Ella Jenkins grew up listening to music. At home, her mother hummed; on the streets of Chicago, Ella jumped rope to rhythmic call and response, call and response. But growing up in the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were in effect, meant listening to hurtful things too, while her own words were ignored. So Ella resolved that she would always hear everyone’s voice—and make herself heard too!

Step by step and note by note, with her good listening ear and her big, sharing heart, little Ella grew up. She studied child psychology and wrote songs just for kids. For her years of sharing her voice and her songs with the world, Ella became known as the first lady of children’s music.