In the radiant Make a Pretty Sound, author Traci N. Todd (Nina) and illustrator Eleanor Davis (Flop to the Top) reverently capture the legacy of singer/songwriter Ella Jenkins, who revolutionized children's music. Todd frames the story by beginning with Ella's childhood in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood and closes with an elderly Ella, who traveled "farther than she has ever been" to perform onstage for children in Indonesia.
Todd and Davis explore the influences that shaped young Ella into the renowned children's musician she became: playground chants, her favorite record shop, the blues music her Uncle Flood introduced her to, and the Bronzeville music halls where she once saw Cab Calloway engage in his call-and-response songs. As young Ella walks the city streets of Chicago, Todd brings the story to life with a distinctive rhythm and vivid sensory details: "Ella is a South Side girl, a Bronzeville bird, skipping in streets that smell of sweets and black-eyed peas."
After moving to San Francisco, Ella becomes a teacher, encouraging children to play with "anything to make a pretty sound." Many of Davis's illustrations feature kids with mouths wide open, eyes closed, singing and shouting with full abandon. Davis also portrays Ella as larger than life, a kind of pied piper to children excited to make music and amplify their voices. Her art, reminiscent of Rafael López's illustrations in Drum Dream Girl, features a palette bursting with grainy crimsons, greens, and coppers. Todd and Davis's stellar collaboration is an exceptional, enthusiastic dedication to the work of Jenkins, the "First Lady of Children's Music," a woman who spent her life bringing joy and music to children through timeless songs. --Julie Danielson