Book of the Week

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music

by Margarita Engle
Illustrated by Rafael López

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015
40 pages  ISBN: 978-0-544-10229-3  Ages 4-8


Millo Castro Zaldarriaga was born in Cuba in the 1920s and grew up attuned to the rhythms in the world around her, and inside her. She dreamed of drumming, but only boys and men learned how to play at that time. She dared to drum anyway, “tall conga drums / small bongo drums / and big, round, silvery / moon-bright timbales … Her hands seemed to fly / as they rippled / rapped / and pounded / all the rhythms / of her drum dreams.” Her father said no when her sisters asked ten-year-old Millo to join their band. Only boys should play drums, he said. But Millo couldn’t silence the sounds. Eventually her father found her a teacher who listened to her, and taught her, and gave her the chance to change the way people thought about girls and drumming. Margarita Engle’s poem makes a striking picture book narrative and is set against the vibrating tropical colors of Rafael López’s lush illustrations. A note tells how Millo went on to a world-famous musician who played alongside jazz greats, in addition to changing hearts and minds with her beats.  © Cooperative Children's Book Center