The Fastest Drummer: Clap Your Hands For Viola Smith!

Description

Clap your hands for Viola Smith—the pioneering female drummer at the heart of this bright and rhythmic biography, who rat-tat-tat-bang-crash-clink-boomed for nearly a century.

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. Dean Robbins’s affectionate portrait of one of the few female professional drummers of the early twentieth century includes an endnote with resources for discovering other female musicians. Susanna Chapman’s swirling illustrations capture the joy and energy of Viola’s stage presence while introducing young readers to the essential art form of jazz.

About the Author

Dean Robbins writes nonfiction children’s picture books about his heroes. His award-winning books have been featured on Public Radio International and praised in The New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and other publications, along with receiving starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal. They’ve been chosen for best-of-the-year honors by the American Library Association, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and Children’s Book Council, among others, and "Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass" was adapted as a short film by Weston Wood Studios. As a journalist, Robbins has served as the editor of Isthmus and contributed to USA Today, The New York Daily News, Space.com, Wisconsin Public Radio, and other media outlets. He draws on his journalism experience to interview the subjects of his children’s books, including Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean and NASA’s pioneering computer scientist Margaret Hamilton.

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