My Name is Celia, Del Sol Books

Author : Monica Brown, Illustrator : Rafael Lopez
1st Grade - 3rd Grade

My Name is Celia

My Name is Celia, Hardcover, Bilingual, Book, Monica Brown, Rafael Lopez, 1st Grade - 3rd Grade, 9780873588720, $15.95

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.

Listen to Vienna Rose read My Name is Celia to you. A marvelous example of the magical encounter between a child and books that we wish for all children.

School Library Journal : Grade 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 competing - undeterred, 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.

Bilingual Collection Monica Brown Books :