Dancing Hands

How Teresa Carreno
Played the Piano
For President Lincoln

Atheneum Books for Young Readers
(Simon and Schuster)
(pub. 8.27.2019) 
 40 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Margarita Engle
      and illustrator:  Rafael Lopez

 
C haracter: Teresa Carreno

O verview: 
     "As a little girl, Teresa Carreno loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals.
     Then a revolution in Venezuela drove her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too - a Civil War.
     Still, Teresa kept playing, and soon she grew famous as the talented Piano Girl who could play anything from a folk song to a sonata. So famous, in fact, that President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play at the white House! Yet with the country torn apart by war, could Teresa's music bring comfort to those who needed it most?"

T antalizing taste: 
     "But the piano was poorly tuned, making her music sound ugly. What should she do? Refuse to play?
     She stopped, feeling discouraged, until Mister Lincoln smiled kindly and asked for his favorite song, 'Listen to the Mockingbird.' 
     Teresa knew she could play this lively piece even on an imperfect piano, so her fingers leaped across all the glorious dark and light keys, improvising the way mockingbirds do, the melody changing a she went along. Music swirled, twirled, and soared on wings of sound.
     The president listened quietly to notes that rose, swayed, rippled, and dipped like a bird in a blue sky above a green forest."

And something more: The Historical Note states that "Teresa Carreno became known as a composer and opera singer, as well as one of the best pianists of her era, playing with  such an intense spirit that audience members claimed they could hear the power of tropical nature in her music. She settled in Berlin, but returned to New York during World War I. Her remains, concert gowns, piano, and many of her documents were eventually returned to Venezuela, where she is remembered as La Leona ('The Lioness') of the piano."

Drum Dream Girl

How One Girl's Courage
Changed Music

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

(published 3.31.2015) 48 pages

A True Tale
with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Margarita Engle
      and Illustrator: Rafael Lopez

C haracter: Milo Castro Zaldarriaga

O verview from the jacket flap:

    "'Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music and rhythm, no one questioned that rule until the drum dream girl. She longed to play tall congas and small bongos and silvery, moon-bright timbales. She had to keep her dream quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that boys and girls should be free to drum and dream.
     Inspired by a Chinese-African-Cuban girl who broke Cuba's traditional taboo against female drummers. Drum Dream Girl tells an inspiring true story for dreamers everywhere."

T antalizing taste:

"When she walked under
wind-wavy palm trees
in a flower-bright park
she heard the whir of parrot wings
the clack of woodpecker beaks
the dancing tap of her own footsteps
and the comforting pat
of her own
heartbeat."

and something more: The Historical Note at the back of the book explains the background for this inspiring poem: "In 1932 at the age of ten, Millo Castro Zaldarriaga performed with her older sisters as Anacaona, Cuba's first 'all-girl dance band.' Millo became a world-famous musician, playing alongside all the American jazz greats of the era. At age fifteen, she played her bongo drums at a New York birthday celebration for U.S president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, where she was enthusiastically cheered by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. There are now many female drummers in Cuba."  This wonderfully lyrical book certainly makes me hope I will someday hear female drummers, in person in Cuba!