The title Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of ELIZABETH COTTON by Laura Veirs (2018) is about a folk music legend. As a young girl, Libba played her older brother’s guitar then hustled herself a job to earn money to buy her own guitar. “All day and night she played that guitar!” By the age of 13, she’d already written Freight Train, the song for which she would be famous.
Half way in, the story leapfrogs over decades. She’s a grandmother working in a department store when a chance meeting with Ruth Crawford Seeger leads her back to the guitar. The Seegers are famous musicians. They recognize Libba’s talent and dedication: here is a woman who — as a child— taught herself to play the guitar upside down and backwards because she was left-handed. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh’s illustrations are graphite and digital color in a limited, muted palette that creates a feeling of historical documentary.
There’s an informative
four-page Author’s Note at the back of the book that describes Elizabeth
Cotton’s life and why Laura Veirs authored this story. The book ends with two
pages of references and a photograph of Libba playing guitar for her great
grandchildren.
My Picture Book Talk lesson for this story is here.
