Biographical Poetry

Biographical Poetry

Bibliography

Engle, Margarita. 2015. Drum dream girl: how one girl’s courage changed music. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing. ISBN: 9780-544-10229-3

Summary/Analysis

This poetry picture book by Margarita Engle tells the story of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga in Cuba during the early 20th century.  Millo broke the taboo that only boys should be allowed to play drums and later became a world famous musician.  The entire book is one narrative free verse poem that begins with her dream of becoming a drummer and ends with her achieving that dream.  Engle uses descriptive adjectives to help bring the sounds to life, alliteration, and onomatopoeias like “boom boom booming” to really listen and hear the sounds.  The illustrations by Rafael Lopez help capture the emotions of the story and the colorfulness of the island’s culture. There is not a table of contents but there is a historical note that is included at the end of the book that helps provide some more details on Millo’s life and historical importance.  

Use

(excerpt from last page)

where everyone who heard

her dream-bright music

sang

and danced

and decided

that girls should always be allowed to play

drums

and both girls and boys

should feel free to dream.

After reading this poem I would ask students to imagine that all of a sudden they were not allowed to go to recess because they were a boy or a girl.  Let them discuss how that would make them feel and then see if students can think of any examples of things in our world that girls or boys are not allowed to do because of their gender.  I would then read this poem aloud again and talk about dreams they have like Millo.  Other activities could include having a student or the class tap their desks/drums to a beat while we all read the poem together.  After reading the poem I would also show students photos of Millo and let them listen to music made by her and her sister’s band.