CHARACTER COUNTS: Drum Dream Girl

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music
By Margarita Engle
HMH Books for Young Readers, 2015. Juvenile biography.

On an island of beautiful colors and rhythmic music, a young girl dreams of playing the congas, bongos and timbales. But only boys are allowed to play drums, and so she must practice in secret until the day that her sisters and father decide to make her dream a reality.

This picture book biography was inspired by the life of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, a Chinese-African-Cuban who broke Cuba’s traditional taboo against female drummers in 1932 and became a world-famous musician. The illustrations by Rafael Lopez are gorgeous, richly colored, and symbolic. This book won the Pura Belpré Award and is available in print, ebook, and as a DVD read-along.

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