(2) K-3 Illustrated by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. As a child, African American folk musician Elizabeth Cotten (1893–1987) taught her left-handed self to play guitar; then "time swept Libba up," and she stopped playing. As a grandmother, she's serendipitously hired as a housekeeper by the Seeger family, who rediscovered her talent and helped Cotten bring her music to the world. Fazlalizadeh's 
art, rendered in graphite with feathery digital coloring, complements Veirs's unpretentious prose exquisitely. Websites.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2018

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright. This new library edition is issued on the heels of the original trade edition.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright. Despite some clichéd writing and occasionally stagy illustrations, this fictionalized account of singer Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten's awakening to her musical gifts is worthy of attention. The book describes how she saved up for her first guitar, which she famously turned upside down to play, and what inspired her song "Freight Train" (lyrics provided), which she wrote at age eleven.

Reviewer: Nell Beram