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Robbins, Dean

¡Mambo Mucho Mambo! : The Dance That Crossed Color Lines

40 pp. | Candlewick | October, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-5362-0608-1 $17.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Eric Velasquez. In 1948 at New York City's ­Palladium Ballroom a new dance craze--the mambo--was born. Robbins (­Margaret and the Moon) and Velasquez (Octopus Stew, rev. 1/20) team up to tell the story of Latin jazz, dance halls, and some of mambo's brightest stars. We open on the streets of New York with an introduction to dancers Millie Donay ("in her Italian neighborhood") and Pedro Aguilar ("in his Puerto Rican neighborhood") in action, their dance moves exploding off the pages in energetic, realistic oils. What follows is an overview of the segregated status quo of 1940s New York ("Black people danced in Black places. Jews danced in Jewish places"), before the focus lands on the Palladium Ballroom and its ­open-door policy that allowed people of all backgrounds to enjoy the sounds of Latin jazz band Machito and His Afro-Cubans. Meeting there for the first time, Aguilar and Donay would together smash through society's barriers while becoming the best mambo dance team in the country. In Robbins and Velasquez's hands, this early challenge to segregation makes for a lively, compelling piece of history. Back matter includes an author's note with further information about the 1940s, Latin jazz, and mambo--and some of the musicians and dancers that made them famous.
Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

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