02/24/2016
"Drum Dream Girl" by Margarita Engle
Copyright 2015, 48 pages
Nonfiction (biography)

Picture taken from Google

This picture book tells the life story of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga: a young musical prodigy from 1930s Cuba who is only referred as "drum dream girl" throughout the story. This book is written in poetry form, which means there are more pictures than texts. So, yes, it's a short read. But you really can't put down this book so quickly. I took my hat off for illustrator Rafael López.  His drawings are vibrant, colorful, eye-catching and full of symbols starting from the cover picture, to the summary page, all the way to the back cover. I especially like all the symbols implied within each drawing. For example, in the cover photo above, we can argue that the drum sitting up on the moon symbolizes the fact that Millo is restricted from practicing her hobby. On the other hand, we can also argue the same detail symbolizes how Millo connects with her Cuban culture through playing musical instruments. What else? I can't pull up another guess from the top of my head, but I love it when books leave wordless questions. That way, there are no right or wrong answers.

The poem inside is beautiful too. There are repetitions, rhymes, similar-sounding words like "drum" and "dream", and most of all a tale to tell. The story is easy to follow, the words easy to read, but the plot still detailed. Sometimes the book would switch in page orientation from landscape to portrait. That's probably just so they can fit even more pictures, but I also think of it as a nice attention grabber for those of us who don't usually sit through a whole book. In addition to that, the illustrations - which I just cannot praise enough - will surely keep readers' attention long enough for them to come from any age group. In short, this book is a work of art both in narration and illustration. It's a great tribute to a brave young girl whom I wish I've heard of a little earlier.