February 17, 2021 | Picture Book Review

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

Golio, Gary
Riley-Webb, Charlotte - illustrator

2017, Millbrook Press

Nonfiction

Grades 3 - 6; Lexile 870L

Print copy available through interlibrary loan; ebook available through Libby/Overdrive

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.

Read a review by Gennifer King:

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