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.Customer Review: Queen of Salsa
Celia Cruz is brought to life for young children in this colorful book. Like the tropics from which she came, the book is full of vibrant illustrations. The story is put into simple terms for young readers or a teacher or parent to read. Since the illustrations are so vibrant and bold children will be enthralled by the unique features of the art work. Each biographical page is bilingual for reading in Spanish or English or both. The book describes her early family life in Cuba, her departure after the revolution, her musical group Sonora Mantacera, meeting her musician husband,her associations with other salsa greats like Tito Puente and Willie Colon, her relocation to Miami and the various honors and recognitions she achieved. This is a great little book for primary and middle school libraries as well as community libraries. Students whoose first language is Spanish can benefit from the bilingual book through middle school years. This is a fun book.
Customer Review: Wonderful!
My Name is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz is written by Monica Brown and illustrated by Rafael Lopez. The book is the recipient of a Pura Belpre' Illustrator Honor Award for outstanding work that portrays, affirms and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. The exciting and inspirational life of beloved Cuban-born salsa queen, Celia Cruz, is celebrated in the bilingual book My Name is Celia Me Llamo Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz. Celia was born in Havana to a large family where their lives were intertwined and music was an important part of everyday life. Celia's papa wanted her to become a teacher but music filled her soul with happiness. She was encouraged by a teacher to "go out into the world and sing...." Celia experienced prejudice and fled her beloved country Cuba when the revolution began. From Cuba, Celia traveled the world sharing her love of music with the world. Rafael Lopez' illustrations are vibrant, fluid combinations of color that beg to be studied. The scenes fill the page and stir emotions as you read the story and live it through his drawings. Armchair Interviews says: My Name is Celia: The Life of Celia Cruz is a beautiful and educational addition to any child's library. We highly recommend it.
Mosquitoes bite, such the blood out of you, but really do not harm you, until you get malaria, then watch out!
Supremely casual she lit a cigarette, put it in her mouth, talking around it, the music inside the bar is real loud, you can hardly hear yourself talking.
"What is it you're thinking?" she asked me.
"Nothing," I said.
"Ok," she says with a smirk, looks through the doorway into the nightclub from the hallway.
The girl next me, sees her girlfriend now, whom was at another club with her, she has arrived, and to her she says "You came back all this way back from 'Barney's?"
"Not enough guys there," she tells the girl I'm talking to, a lovely dark eyed tanned girl with blond hair.
"You were not there very long," she replies. (Her face averted from mine, she's looking at the tall blond haired guy doing his thing with two girls on the dance floor. (Her girlfriend peremptory yet quiet.)
She now has a cigarette between her lips, the cigarette and her head bobbing with the music that is seeping out into the hallway. I tell myself, chasing her, is like her chasing that blond haired guy, whom is slain to the lusts of his accomplishments in the bullring there. She is insanely immersed in grief over this guy, he is her quest for the evening, her challenge, so I tell myself, and so it look to me.
I sense she likes my company, and I am comfortable to be with, so I've been told, but when the it comes down to the end of the night, she'll be with him, if she has to hogtie him, or strip for him in front of everyone. And I thin she'll do it. I saw that once happen in Germany. When a gal gets a fixation on a man, it doesn't matter if he is surrounded by a hundred naked men, she will pick that one out every time, until the challenge is over, then, put him out to roost in some empty field in the cold.
"Thanks," she told me for lighting her cigarette, "Where you from," she asked, and I replied, "I'm on leave from Vietnam, the war...."
"Oh, yes," she comments, "we have some of our boys over there also."
"So you've evidently been following this guy all night, is that correct?"
"Yes, from one bar to the next, and I'll end up with him one way or the other." (She now puffs rapidly at the cigarette, staring into the crowed dance floor.)
In life I would find out, women like her had the determination, but not much sense, and in the long run, well, to be honest, they were not looking for anything for the long run, it was now or never. It didn't matter what I knew, or what might have happened between us, because she didn't want it, all she needed was an affidavit for him to be hers for the evening. So I was wasting my time. But everyone likes to keep a second, in place, they look good to others to have men standing around you with their tongues out, and I simply said, "It's too late," and started to walk away, my back to her, actually, it was an insult to her, and she knew it, for I did not look back. She was enjoying what I called Dead Reality, the best of all reason to make love, no commitment.
"That's right!" I told myself, listen to the voice inside of you; it will tell you when to avoid the execution forth coming.
I did meet another girl that night, I got drunker than a skunk, and when she woke me up in the morning, she wanted me to take her to the park, and we did, and I then left her alone. She came to my hotel room a few days later, asked me why I did not call her. And I was honest, I said I had only a week in Sydney, and I wanted to do all I could, and I was then heading back to Vietnam, and who knows. And she understood.
5-25-2008
See Dennis' web site: http://dennissiluk.tripod.com
top dance music
No comments:
Post a Comment