¡Mambo Mucho Mambo! the Dance That Crossed Color Lines. Dean Robbins. Illustrated by Eric Velásquez. 2021. [November] 40 pages. [Source: Library]
First sentence: Millie whirled.
Her arms waved and knees wriggled.
She danced to smooth jazz songs
in her Italian neighborhood.
Trumpets tooted.
Saxophones trilled.
No one danced to jazzy songs like Millie.
Pedro jumped.
His shoulders jerked and elbows jiggled.
He danced to snappy Latin songs in his Puerto Rican neighborhood.
Maracas rattled.
Congas rumbled.
No one danced to Latin songs like Pedro.
Premise/plot: Mambo Mucho Mambo is a picture book celebrating dance, music, and integration. Set in New York City in the 1940s, the book showcases how neighborhoods (of different cultures and ethnicities) came together--and DANCED together--to the new sound of Latin jazz. Soon dancing became socializing became so much more. This picture book mentions--by name--some of the couples dancing together. Millie and Pedro were a real life couple AND dance team from the time period. (Dance brought them together. AKA: They danced and danced and fell in love.) The book is told in verse.
My thoughts: After reading the book, of course I just HAD to look up the artist Machito & His Afro-Cuban Orchestra. (You can find them on Spotify. Here is a link to the Complete Columbia Masters.) There is a song called "Mambo Mucho Mambo".
I loved this one. I do enjoy a good book that celebrates music.
The illustrations were wonderful!!!
© 2022 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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