A bilingual portrait of the "Queen of Salsa" describes her childhood in Cuba, her musical career, and her move to the United States, and explains how her music brought her native Cuba to the world. - (Baker & Taylor)
The "Queen of Salsa" describes her childhood in Cuba, her musical career, and her move to the United States, and explains how her music brought her native Cuba to the world. - (Baker & Taylor)
This bilingual book allows young readers to enter Celia Cruz's life as she becomes a well-known singer in her homeland of Cuba, then moves to New York City and Miami where she and others create a new type of music called salsa. School Library Journal has named My Name is Celia “[a]n exuberant picture-book biography . . . a brilliant introduction to a significant woman and her music.” - (NBN)
Monica Brown, Ph.D. is the author of many award-winning books for children, including Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People, winner of the Américas Award for Children's Literature and an Orbis Pictus Honor for Outstanding Nonfiction, and Waiting for the Biblioburro, a Christopher Award winner. She is a Professor of English at Northern Arizona University, specializing in U.S. Latino Literature and Multicultural Literature. She is a recipient of the prestigious Rockefeller Fellowship on Chicano Cultural Literacies from the Center for Chicano Studies at the University of California. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Rafael López is an award-winning children's book illustrator whose work is a fusion of strong graphic style and magical symbolism. In 2012, he won the Pura Belpré honor in illustration for The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred, written by Samantha Vamos. His Illustrations for Book Fiesta! written by Pat Mora were the recipient of the 2010 Pura Belpré Illustrator Award given by the American Library Association to honor work that best portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in children's books. - (NBN)
Horn Book Guide Reviews
Brown has the Queen of Salsa tell her own story in a first-person narrative. The vivid poetic language makes the sights, sounds, and smells of Havana, New York, and Miami come alive (but is somewhat vague about details). Lopez's bold, almost-cubist illustrations suit the story, interpreting the bilingual text's magical realism. A one-page afterword fills in some biographical information. Copyright 2005 Horn Book Guide Reviews.
School Library Journal Reviews
Gr 2-4-An exuberant picture-book biography of the Cuban-born salsa singer. From its rhythmic opening, the first-person narrative dances readers through Cruz's youth in Havana, a childhood bounded by scents of nature and home, the sweet taste of sugar, and the sound of music. A singer from an early age, Cruz sang so continually that one of her teachers finally urged her to share her voice with the world. Thus encouraged, she entered competitions, undeterred when her racial heritage prevented her from competingÄundeterred, even, when the advent of Castro's communist regime forced her to leave Cuba as a refugee. Positive even in exile, Cruz made New York City her own and took Miami by storm. The salsa-influenced prose presented in English and in Spanish is followed by a straightforward vita of the singer, noting her death in July 2003. Lopez's distinguished, luminous acrylic paintings are alive with motion, lush with brilliantly layered colors, and informed with verve and symbolism. This is a brilliant introduction to a significant woman and her music. The only enhancement required is the music itself. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
