Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln - Hardcover

Engle, Margarita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 148148740X ISBN 13: 9781481487405

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2019

Synopsis

A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book of 2019!

In soaring words and stunning illustrations, Margarita Engle and Rafael López tell the story of Teresa Carreño, a child prodigy who played piano for Abraham Lincoln.

As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals. Then a revolution in Venezuela forced her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too—the Civil War.

Still, Teresa kept playing, and soon she grew famous as the talented Piano Girl who could play anything from a folk song to a sonata. So famous, in fact, that President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play at the White House! Yet with the country torn apart by war, could Teresa’s music bring comfort to those who needed it most?

About this title

About the Author:

Margarita Engle was the 2017­–2019 national Young People’s Poet Laureate, and received the 2019 NSK Neustadt Prize. She is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, including Soaring Earth; With a Star in My Hand; The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner; and The Lightning Dreamer, a PEN Literary Award for Young Adult Literature winner. Her verse memoir, Enchanted Air, received the Pura Belpré Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, and was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, among others. Her picture book Drum Dream Girl received the Charlotte Zolotow Award. Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives. She continues to visit Cuba as often as she can. Visit her at MargaritaEngle.com.

Rafael López was born and raised in Mexico, a place that has always influenced the vivid colors and shapes in his artwork. He now creates community-based mural projects around the world and illustrates acclaimed children’s books including The Day You Begin, Bravo!, Drum Dream Girl,  We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands, Book Fiesta!, and Dancing Hands. Rafael divides his time between Mexico and California. Visit him at RafaelLopez.com.

Review:

* “Engle's free verse whirls and twirls, playful and vivacious, while López's vivid, colorful artwork elevates this story to heavenly heights. Like a concerto for the heart.” -- Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Lyrical, imagery-rich text . . . Patterned mixed-media illustrations use color to evoke the lushness of Venezuela, the darkness of war, and the beauty of music. Concluding with a historical note, the biography’s vibrant images and language form a melodious composition.” -- Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 148148740X
• ISBN 13: 9781481487405
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: López Rafael