Horn for Louis

From the Hardcover edition.

Seven-year-old Louis Armstrong was too poor to buy a real horn. He didn’t even go to school. To help his mother pay the rent, Louis had a job. Every day he rode a junk wagon through the streets of New Orleans, playing his tin horn and collecting stuff people didn’t want. Then one day the junk wagon passed a pawn shop with a gleaming brass trumpet in the window. . . .
A Horn for Louis is perfect for Black History Month. With messages about hard work, persistence, hope, tolerance, cooperation, trust, and friendship, it’s perfect for the rest of the year, too!

Danielle Williams - Children's Literature

Born into a poor family in New Orleans at the turn of the century, Louis Armstrong's talent was apparently innate and only became better when he received his first cornet. A Horn for Louis is, in part, a fictional retelling of how Armstrong received his first horn from a Jewish family that he worked for. Kimmel admits in a note at the end of the text that the story is largely fictional and that little or nor credence should be given to the recounting. And yet Armstrong's rise to glory and his tremendous talent with horns cannot be denied. This is still a wonderful tale of perseverance and never giving up on your dreams—no matter your age. Seven-year-old Louis desperately wants a horn but is also proud and does not accept charity, even for something that he has wanted all his life. His pride makes it difficult to accept the old horn that is bought for him by his employers, but when a deal is struck that allows Louis to keep the horn and to pay off the debt in a fashion he can afford, Louis happily accepts and even plays his way home later that night. Short chapters make this story easy to read for beginning readers and black-and-white sketches break up longer sections with scenes from the day when Louis received his first horn. 2005, Random House, Ages 5 to 10.

Eric Kimmel grew up in Brooklyn, New York, loving the music of Louis Armstrong, who lived a few miles away in Queens. He is the award-winning author of the Caldecott Honor Book Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. He lives in Portland, Oregon.