About this item
Celebrate music icon Carlos Santana in this vibrant, rhythmic picture book from the author of the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters. Carlos Santana loved to listen to his father play el violn. It was a sound that filled the world with magic and love and feeling and healing - a sound that made angels real. Carlos wanted to make angels real, too. So he started playing music. Carlos tried el clarinete and el violn, but there were no angels. Then he picked up la guitarra. He took the soul of the Blues, the brains of Jazz, and the energy of Rock and Roll, and added the slow heat of Afro-Cuban drums and the cilantro-scented sway of the music he'd grown up with in Mexico. There were a lot of bands in San Francisco but none of them sounded like this.
About the Author
Hi!My name is Michael Mahin. I'm a children's author, screenwriter, and wannabe rockstar! (Seriously, who doesn't want to be a rockstar!? ) My picture books tend to be about people who use their creativity, and specifically music, to make the world a better place. I hope they inspire kids to be more creative, more confident, and more compassionate, while also providing parents and educators with an entertaining way to teach children about diversity, creativity, and different cultures. My picture books, Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters, Stalebread Charlie and the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band, and When Angels Sing: The Story of Rock Legend Carlos Santana have earned a lot of cool awards, including being named to The New York Times' Best Illustrated Books list, the New York Public Library's Best Books for Kids list, the NPR Best Books List, winning a Parent's Choice Gold Medal, getting a Eureka! Gold Medal from the California Reading Association, getting a Blue Ribbon from the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Literature, and winning the 2017 Outstanding Nonfiction Picture Book Award from the Children's Literature Council of Southern California. They even earned Muddy illustrator Evan Turk the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator award, and illustrator Jose Ramirez, the prestigious the Society of Illustrator's Gold Medal for Original Art for his work on When Angels Sing.If you visit my website, you'll see I blog about writing and dreaming big. My goal there is to help writers get more comfortable with the craft and process of writing.Here are a few fun facts about me:-My mom is Chinese. My dad, Scotch-Irish.-I have a Ph.D. in American literature from Claremont Graduate University.-I have a pair of Star Wars Vans slip-ons.-I love to cook! And garden.-I spent 6 months in China studying Kung Fu and Buddhism while in graduate school. Martial arts is a lifelong love of mine.-I used to be a singer and lead guitarist in a well-known, Southern California 80s cover band called Neon Nation. (Commence laughing!) -My wife and I have known each other since high-school and I'm the proud father of a boy (8ish) and girl (5ish) .
