Drum City

by Thea Guidone, Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Illustrator)

Overview

A summer parade, a drummer parade, a magical bucket-and-bowl serenade!
 
What begins with one boy’s beat on a kettle soon spreads to pots and pans and cartons and cans all across the neighborhood. When everyone joins in, together they create the catchy, driving tempo of a bright, hot DRUM CITY!
 
Get ready to make some noise with this upbeat, lyrical, and diverse picture book!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780553523508
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	09/08/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,072,726
Product dimensions:	10.56(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.13(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Thea Guidone lives in a red house on a hill in Connecticut. She loves John and Suzanna, old books, cottage gardens, Friday-night pizza, and writing by the fire. This is her first children’s book.
 
Vanessa Newton trained at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the School of Visual Arts, both in New York City. Before turning her sights to children’s books, Vanessa worked as a medical phlebotomist. Her other works include the Ruby and the Booker Boys series and Let Freedom Sing, which she also authored. Vanessa lives in East Orange, New Jersey, with her family.

Read an Excerpt

Drum.
Drum.
Boy in the yard drumming so hard, calling all kids to come drum in the yard.
Drum on some kettles and cans!
Here they come!
They run to the beat of the drum.
Drum.
Bowls and buckets, cartons and cans, barrels and bins, and pots and pans, mops on pails, and rusty old rails—a frolicking, rollicking ruckus of rumbling drums.
Drum.
Jump to the sound, dance all around, loud on the tubs and the tins that they found.
“March!” calls the boy in the yard full of drums, hundreds and hundreds of drums.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Review, Booklist, June, 2010:
“A great choice for an active storytime."

Review, Kids lit. Menesha Library.org, June 24, 2010:
"Purely infectious!"

Review, Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2010:
"This one begs to be read aloud in a music or city-sounds storytime. But be forewarned—anything even remotely drum-like will not be safe for the rest of the day."

Editorial Reviews

Review, Booklist, June, 2010:
“A great choice for an active storytime."

Review, Kids lit. Menesha Library.org, June 24, 2010:
"Purely infectious!"

Review, Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2010:
"This one begs to be read aloud in a music or city-sounds storytime. But be forewarned—anything even remotely drum-like will not be safe for the rest of the day."

From the Publisher

A makeshift drum line of kids--banging away at everything from pots and pans to garbage lids--wakes up a city from its torpor, and pretty soon everyone is joining in the fun. "People in traffic keeping the beat/ on the hood and the trunk/ and the bicycle seat." Debut author Guidone seems more interested in portraying kid power (" 'March!' calls the boy in the yard full of drums") and the activation of the grownups' inner drummers ("Mamas in rollers rock babies in strollers") than in conveying how the congenial cacophony actually sounds--the rhyming isn't particularly percussive, and there is a curious absence of onomatopoeia. Though many of the details in Newton's (Let Freedom Sing) digitally rendered artwork appear to set the story in the present, her 1950s-styled characterizations (one of the girls even wears Mary Janes and frilly ankle socks) are in keeping with the lowtech nature of the fun that's being had. The irony-free exuberance of Guidone's text and Newton's warm-hued crowd scenes give this book a lovely, old-fashioned feel. Ages 4-7. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 2—The creation of Drum City starts in the yard of one small boy beating on a large pot with a whisk and spoon. Other children quickly arrive, carrying a variety of items that converge into a "frolicking, rollicking ruckus of rumbling drums." As the band marches down the street, adults perk up their ears to listen. Soon young and old join the rhythmic parade that celebrates the multiethnic connections of people making music together. Newton's exuberant cartoonlike Photoshop illustrations capture the faces and movements of the participants. Guidone's jaunty text needs to be read aloud, although advance practice is recommended to master the tongue twisting required in some sections. Expect listeners to clamor for drums of their own.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato

School Library Journal

A driving beat powers this simple story of a boy who, merrily drumming with kitchen utensils, summons all the neighborhood kids to join him. The kids come en masse with buckets, barrels, pots, pans and anything that can make noise. The horde of drumming children marches down the city streets, disrupting the "humdrum of the city" with the rhythmic pounding of their makeshift drums. The adults in the city hear the rumbling and stop, waiting. When the kids march through the streets to their groovin' beats, everyone starts jamming with them. Suddenly, "[t]the city becomes a city of drums, / banging and clanging as everyone comes. / A summer parade, a drummer parade, / a magical bucket-and-bowl serenade / in the heart / of a city of / drums." Newton's illustrations depict a multiethnic, multigenerational cast of characters in a vibrant urban setting. This one begs to be read aloud in a music or city-sounds storytime. But be forewarned-anything even remotely drum-like will not be safe for the rest of the day. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews