Johnette Downing – författare

A gross and giggle-inducing take on the classic children''s song with "sly humor and a bit of the unexpected presented with bold art" (School Library Journal). There was an old lady who swallowed a fly . . . Young readers will love hearing about the fly and all the other creepy-crawly bugs the old lady gulps down in this fanciful feast. With a taste for slugs, the old lady enjoys a poached roach, a squirmy worm, a wiggly spider, and more during the course of the tale. And a surprise ending reveals that this isn''t just any old lady.Accompanied by Johnette Downing''s signature colorful collage illustrations, this good and gross tale pops off the page with its fun, musical language and whimsical look at the insect food chain. "Johnette Downing has done it again . . . Another entertaining read for young ones." —Baton Rouge Advocate "As an enthusiast of fractured tales and a big fan of Johnette''s songs and stories, I give Johnette''s new book a big ten thumbs up. Her funny and surprising version gives a new twist to an old favorite. It is ''kidtastic!''" —Ann L. Davis, head of children''s services, Napa City-County Library, Napa, California

Irma Thomas is a beloved New Orleans icon with a career that now spans sixty years. Her self-penned "Wish Someone Would Care" was a national hit in 1964, though she did not win her first Grammy until 2007 for her post-Hurricane Katrina album, After the Rain. A contemporary of artists like Aretha Franklin and Etta James, she followed a different path to fame and acclaim. The course of Irma Thomas’s music career at first seems improbable. Born Irma Lee in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, her early years were spent shuttling between New Orleans and rural Greensburg. She showed early promise as an entertainer and singer, but her education was cut short when she became pregnant at the age of fourteen. By the time she was twenty, she had four children. She began recording while in her late teens, scoring a hit with the risqué "Don’t Mess with My Man," and subsequently working with producer/songwriter Allen Toussaint. Her biggest hits were recorded in Los Angeles, where she briefly moved in the early 1970s. Upon returning to New Orleans, she was caught in the wave of the discovery of New Orleans rhythm and blues by the world at large, and became a fixture at the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival. Scott Billington, who was Thomas’s producer for over twenty years including when she won her Grammy, and Johnette Downing combine diligent research with an insider’s connection to Thomas’s story. The authors tell the story of both the person and the broader world of New Orleans music, as it evolved along with this treasured music legend.

Irma Thomas is a beloved New Orleans icon with a career that now spans sixty years. Her self-penned "Wish Someone Would Care" was a national hit in 1964, though she did not win her first Grammy until 2007 for her post-Hurricane Katrina album, After the Rain. A contemporary of artists like Aretha Franklin and Etta James, she followed a different path to fame and acclaim. The course of Irma Thomas’s music career at first seems improbable. Born Irma Lee in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, her early years were spent shuttling between New Orleans and rural Greensburg. She showed early promise as an entertainer and singer, but her education was cut short when she became pregnant at the age of fourteen. By the time she was twenty, she had four children. She began recording while in her late teens, scoring a hit with the risqué "Don’t Mess with My Man," and subsequently working with producer/songwriter Allen Toussaint. Her biggest hits were recorded in Los Angeles, where she briefly moved in the early 1970s. Upon returning to New Orleans, she was caught in the wave of the discovery of New Orleans rhythm and blues by the world at large, and became a fixture at the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival. Scott Billington, who was Thomas’s producer for over twenty years including when she won her Grammy, and Johnette Downing combine diligent research with an insider’s connection to Thomas’s story. The authors tell the story of both the person and the broader world of New Orleans music, as it evolved along with this treasured music legend.