Who Is Stevie Wonder [Paperback]

Discover more about Stevie Wonder, the music prodigy whose awards include 25 Grammy Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Stevie Wonder is one of the most successful singer-songwriter-musicians of our time. Signing his first record deal when he was only eleven, he had his first No.1 hit when he was thirteen. Since then he has had thirty US top ten hits, won a range of awards for his music and his civil rights work, and created such iconic songs as Isn't She Lovely and I Just Called to Say I Love You. Stevie Wonder is a beloved entertainer who continues to tour and perform around the world.Jim Gigliotti is a freelance writer based in Southern California. A former editor at theNational Football League, he has written more than 50 books for all ages. His writing credits include biographies for young readers on Olympian Jesse Owens and baseball star Roberto Clemente.Who Is Stevie Wonder?
 
Steveland Judkins walked into the Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, one day in the fall of 1961. He was there to audition for the studio bosses. Every day, other musicians came to Motown for the same reason. They all hoped to become stars. Stevie, as he was called, was just like them—except that he was only eleven years old, and he was blind.
 
Stevie started off by playing the piano. Then he banged on the drums for a while. He was wearing dark sunglasses indoors, but plenty of young musicians thought wearing shades like that looked cool. And Stevie found his way around the instruments with no problem. Not everyone in the room realized Stevie was blind.
 
At first, Berry Gordy, who was the man in charge of Motown, didn’t think Stevie was such a big deal. Gordy already had enough people who could play the piano and the drums. But after playing the drums, Stevie sang for a bit. Then he played the harmonica. Gordy was impressed that not only could Stevie do so many things well, but he did tl.