The rhythm of a drumbeat infuses Margarita Engle's (Silver People) picture book based on the life of Chinese-African-Cuban jazz musician Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, set against Rafael López's (The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred) warm-toned acrylics with a hint of magical realism.
Author and artist paint a picture of a child who can't sit still. She dreams of "pounding tall conga drums/ tapping small bongó drums/ and boom boom booming/ with long, loud sticks/ on big, round, silvery/ moon-bright timbales." López's turquoise and deep violet backdrops summon the night, while his tangerine skies drip with sunlight. Boys and men happily parade the streets with their drums, while the heroine can only dream of them by moonlight: "Her hands seemed to fly/ as they rippled/ rapped/ and pounded/ all the rhythms/ of her drum dreams." In López's illustration, the heroine hovers like a hummingbird, her wings keeping her aloft to play on a drum held up by a flower. Her father finds her a teacher who "taught her more/ and more/ and more/ and she practiced/ and she practiced/ and she practiced." In the artwork, the rhythms leave her teacher's fingertips in bands of color and seem to stroke the drum skins of his eager pupil. When her teacher says she's ready to play at a café, "everyone who heard/ her dream-bright music/ sang/ and danced/ and decided/ that girls should always/ be allowed to play/ drums."
Young people will be inspired by this heroine's defiance of the gender lines and her rise as a drummer. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness