Clap Your Hands for Viola Smith
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Candlewick Press
(pub. 3.5.2024)
40 pages
Ages 7 - 9
Author: Dean Robbins
Illustrator: Susanna Chapman
Character: Viola Smith
Overview:
" Five girls played together in the Smith Sisters Orchestra: Irene on trombone, Erma on vibraphone, Edwina on trumpet, Mildred on violin, and Lila on saxophone. But what of the littlest sister? When Viola’s time came, almost every instrument was taken . . . except one.
When she first sat behind a drum kit, she lost the beat, made a terrible racket, and had more fun than she’d ever had before. Viola took to the road with her family, learned from the greats, formed her own band in the face of discrimination and ridicule, mastered twelve- and seventeen-piece drum kits, and played so fast she left no room for doubt: women could not only keep the beat—they could beat the odds.
At one hundred years of age, Viola was still slamming her snare and socking her cymbals."
Tantalizing taste:
"Viola practiced, practiced, practiced.
She worked on paradiddles, single stroke rolls,
double stroke rolls.
Her playing became bolder, flashier, and faster...
Women musicians got little respect in the 1930s...
They believed women could never sound as good
as men did on their instruments.
Viola had an idea for changing people's minds. She
would start her own women's band: The Coquettes!"
And something more: The author, Dean Robbins, shared in the Author's Note: "Following Viola's lead, countless women instrumentalists made their mark on popular music. They hailed her as a hero and an inspiration, marveling at her determination to keep playing to the age of 107."
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