Additional information
by Mayra Lazara Dole (Author), Tonel (Illustrator)
Who says girls can't play drums? The beat of Chavi's congas livens up her entire neighborhood. When she's not picked to drum in Miami's Calle Ocho festival, she decides to do something about it!
Tun-TUN-dun-TUN!
Even though nobody in her Cuban-American neighborhood thinks girls should play the drums, Chavi knows she was born to drum. And the whole world is her instrument: she drums on paint cans, sofa arms, even on her mother's cheeks. Her favorites, however, are the tumbadoras, the conga drums that liven the Caribbean music she and her neighbors love. So, when she's not picked to play on the school float for the festival on Miami's Calle Ocho, she decides to do something about it!
Mayra Lazara Dole's plucky little musician will drum her way into the hearts of young readers, while Tonel's wonderfully quirky illustrations capture Calle Ocho, its inhabitants, and celebrations' heart-thumping energy.
Author Biography
Mayra Dole was born in Marianao, Cuba, and raised in a Cuban barrio outside Miami. A prolific author, an accomplished and passionate musician, and an advocate for the differently-abled, Mayra has also been a dancer, landscape designer, and hairdresser. She lives in Coral Gables, Florida.
Tonel is a visual artist and art critic who was born in Havana, Cuba, where he illustrated several children's books. His work for grownups has been exhibited in North and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe. He received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in the Humanities and a John S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship for painting and installation art. He lives and teaches in Vancouver, British Columbia.
