How did famous New Orleans jazz trumpet player Louis Armstrong get his first horn?

Seven-year-old Louis Armstrong was too poor to buy a real instrument. He didn't even go to school. To help his mother pay the rent, every day he rode a junk wagon through the streets of New Orleans, playing a 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. . . .

With messages about hard work, persistence, hope, tolerance, cooperation, trust, and friendship, A Horn for Louis is perfect for aspiring young musicians and nonfiction fans alike!

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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-winningauthor of the Caldecott Honor Book Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins. He lives in Portland, Oregon.