Celia Cruz, Queen of Salsa - Hardcover

Veronica Chambers is a winner of the National Endowment for the Arts fiction writing award, a former editor at Newsweek, and has written several picture books and novels forchildren. She lives in California. Julie Maren lives Colorado. This is her first picture book.

Gr. 2-4, younger for reading aloud. In this picture-book biography, Chambers offers a brief, lyrical tribute to salsa superstar Celia Cruz. Short paragraphs follow the vocalist from her Havana childhood, where neighbors crowded the street to hear young Celia sing to her family, to her heartbreaking emigration from Cuba and worldwide stardom. Chambers writes in figurative language that, while adding a whimsical, fairy-tale quality to the story, may confuse younger children ("Celia would grow up to be a queen, but she was not born a princess"), and specific musical references, such as "Afro-Cuban rhythms," will likely be lost on youngsters. That said, Chambers' enthusiasm for her subject is contagious, and the bright, uncluttered paintings of rounded, stylized figures in saturated, tropical hues echo the energy in the words. With few books about Cruz available for this age group, this is a welcome addition to the biography shelves. An author's note, a discography, and a glossary of Spanish words used in the text are appended. Suggest this with Andrea Davis Pinkney's Ella Fitzgerald (2002) for another picture-book view of a legendary female vocalist. Gillian Engberg
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