Tito Puente Mambo King / Rey Del Mambo

Book: Tito Puente Mambo King / Rey Del Mambo

Author: Monica Brown 

Illustrator: Rafael Lopez 
Genre: Non-Fiction, Biographical
Major Awards: N/A
Age Group: PreKindergarten - 3rd
Summary:

Tito Puente is a famous musician / song writer known as the Mambo King. Throughout his life, he loved baseball and playing anything that made music ever since he was little. As a result, his mother would take him to music lessons and took him to perform in places such as events and restaurants. All this is good and all, however Puente's dream was to become a leader of a band. Before that came true, though, he had to join the Navy for a while. Later on, he actually did become a leader of a group called Tito Puente and his Orchestra. Towards the end of the book, there was a biography about Tito Puente to find out more about him. 

Evaluation & Comments: This was interesting to read because on each page, there was the Spanish version as well. I loved how much color there was throughout the book because I felt like that kept me interested as well. I would like to use this book in my classroom as a read aloud and discuss what is going on as a whole class. The message of this book would be that if we work hard enough for our dreams, eventually one day it will come true.