Examines the life and career of the talented jazz composer, bandleader, and pianist, from his childhood in Washington, D.C., through his battle against racism, to his influence on the world of jazz.
Wendie Old began writing in high school but didn't get books published until the early 1990s. They immediately collected awards. Her series of middle school biographies each were honored with the NCSS/CBC Notable Book award from Social Studies teachers. TO FLY, THE STORY OF THE WRIGHT BROTHERS, Clarion 2002, a book for elementary school readers, won many awards -- one from all the teacher groups (except the Math teachers), Boston Globe - Horn Book Honor Book, ALA Notable Children's Book 2003, and was on many state reading lists.
She enjoys being a children's librarian in a public library. When she discovered the lack of information about Groundhog Day -- she wrote a book about that. (See if the groundhog near you is mentioned in that book. Most of them are.)
She writes picture books as well. Her first published picture book, Stacy Had a Little Sister, is still being used as bibliotherapy with children who have had siblings die of S.I.D.S.
Her other picture books were published under the pen name -- C.W. Bowie. She and two friends wrote them together and then combined their names to come up with C.W. Bowie. She's the "W" part of the name.
Her blog at wendieold.blogspot.com is called Wendie's Wanderings and it does exactly that. It rambles on about the writing life, happenings at her library (September is Spider Month, yikes!), book reviews, her grandchildren, and her many adventures while traveling and promoting her books.
