Dean Robbins (1)

First sentence: Five girls played together in the Smith Sisters Orchestra. Irene on trombone. Erma on vibraphone. Edwina on trumpet. Mildred on violin. Lila on saxophone. Was there a spot for the sixth sister, Viola? Almost every instrument was taken...except for the drums.

Premise/plot: The Fastest Drummer is a nonfiction picture book biography of Viola Smith. It celebrates music, jazz, women's history, and history-history.

My thoughts: I have a weakness for music-related picture books, show more especially jazz-focused picture books. (I blame Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb one of the greatest early readers ever.) This one is a biography of a musician, a drummer, Viola Smith. I had not heard of Viola Smith, however, famous drummers--particularly jazz drummers--aren't something I'm particularly familiar with at all.

What I LOVED about this one was the narrative. The storytelling AND in particular the descriptive word choices make for a super rhythmic read aloud. I loved, loved, loved how the narrative combines with the illustrations to make for a fantastic read. show less

Refreshingly non-Eurocentric, this story starts with cave paintings and etchings on bone, with Shoshone and Egyptian and Babylonian people. Around the world and through time, people created maps with different tools on different materials (papyrus, clay, wood) and imagined the world in different ways (rectangle, cylinder, sphere). People also created new tools to depict the world and to navigate: globe, compass, Gunter's chain, theolodite. A picture of modern people surveying a landscape - show more now with buildings, bridges, and an airplane in the sky - echoes the same image from earlier in the book, with almost the same text ("Mountains rise in the east...").

Back matter includes a timeline with visuals, an author's note, illustrator's note, mapmaking tricks and tools, what mapmakers love (art, math, science, etc.), and a bibliography. The front endpaper shows papyrus scraps; the back endpaper shows a GPS in a car on a road at night. show less

This is a picture book biography I can get behind and cheer for!

A young Margaret sees inequality in the world from girls not playing baseball to no mommy longlegs! She determines to follow her own dreams and studies everything she's interested in - but especially math. Eventually, Margaret discovered computers and began writing code. With all her hard work, she was ready to help NASA send a rocket to the moon, eventually being put in charge of software programming. Margaret's hard work paid show more off and got the astronauts safely to the moon.

An author's note gives more information about Margaret's life, historical context, and Margaret's continued career in mathematics and computers. There is also a brief bibliography and additional reading as well as a spread of photographs from Margaret Hamilton's life.

The text is brisk and simple, giving enough context for readers and listeners to follow the story without overwhelming with text or making the story confusing. I often feel the problem with picture book biographies is that the audience is too young to understand the ideas and context presented or there is an assumption of a lot of historical knowledge readers don't have. This book hits the right note, creating a relatable story with simple explanations of math and science and Hamilton's work.

Lucy Knisley was a great choice for illustrator; her work in comic memoirs and readable, bold style combines nicely with the text. Margaret Hamilton is shown as an ordinary girl who's interested in the world around her and works hard to explore, learn, and dream. Incidentally, I think Knisley would do well with a middle grade title similar to Telgemeier...

Verdict: I very rarely recommend picture book biographies, but this one could actually be used in storytime and will be quickly checked out without additional urging by the librarian! Promote to kids interested in science, comics, astronomy, and space as well as girls doing interesting things.

ISBN: 9780399551857; Published 2017 by Alfred A. Knopf; Borrowed from another library in my consortium show less

I guess my only problem with this book is how the illustrator made Alice Paul look so pretty. Not that the real Alice Paul wasn't pretty...if you look up pictures of her, I imagine she was quite fetching in her day. She has really sweet eyes. But in this picture book, she looks much more idealized. Full red lips, huge doe eyes with long eyelashes, a tiny nose, and an hourglass figure. I'm not against any illustrator taking liberties with their subject, but I don't know why Alice Paul show more couldn't have been portrayed a bit more realistically. Do the illustrator and publisher think that in order to get kids to pay attention to women's history, the women involved have to live up to today's standards of beauty?

End rant. This is still an important book. show less