A spirited picture-book biography of composer Scott Joplin blends lively writing with colorful, distinctive illustrations in gouache, wax pastel, and collage. Joplin was born in the Texas Red River Valley to formerly enslaved parents. Growing up in a musical family, Joplin played the cornet before seeing his first piano. Even before he had lessons he was plinking out songs. With “music bubbling inside him,” he left Texas as a young man, eventually making his way to Chicago, where he first heard ragtime. “The music went round and round in his head.” A job as a piano teacher in Missouri and as a pianist at the Maple Leaf Club, and time in college where he learned to compose, preceded his first ragtime composition, “Maple Leaf Rag.” He went on to compose other ragtime pieces, operas, and ballets. The author’s obvious appreciation of Joplin carries into the lengthy and informative author’s note. (Ages 6-9)