Scat Cat Monroe, a hip cat who was there from the beginning, tells the story of Ella Fitzgerald

Author: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Illustrator: Brian Pinkney
Format: Hardcover
Published: Little Brown, 2002

Scat Cat Monroe, a hip cat who was there from the beginning, tells the story of Ella Fitzgerald from her start in a talent contest at the Apollo Theatre (too nervous to dance as planned, she started singing instead) to a regular gig at the Savoy with the Chick Webb Orchestra, to singing bebop with Dizzy Gillespie?s band. As in Duke Ellington, Andrea Pinkney turns many a jazzy phrase in the telling, and Brian Pinkney uses scratchboard (and an art deco style) to great effect.