In a story based on the life of jazz drummer David "Panama" Francis, a little boy named David dreams of getting his own drum and marching in the Sunday parade.

Jazz drummer Francis, who died last year, collaborated with Reiser (coauthor of Carry It On) for this story about how the musician acquired his first drum. As a child in Miami, David would use spoons and pieces of furniture to play makeshift drums. Each Sunday, he watched in awe as a drummer named Brulla Roberts led the local band down the streets. David senses that he, too, is a drummer: "He felt it with the itch in his fingers and the rhythm in his wrists." But when his parents give the six-year-old a drum and he plays it as he marches behind Roberts, he accidentally tears the top of it. The story's rhythm falters as the text laboriously describes the lad's unsuccessful attempts to repair the instrument. Yet the tale ends on a satisfying note: Roberts visits David's home, bringing the youngster a thrilling gift his own first drum. When David insists that it must be magical, Roberts says with prescience, "Drummer man's magic doesn't come from the drum. The magic comes from the drummer man." If there is a touch of magic in this volume, it can be found in Velasquez's (The Piano Man) remarkably realistic oil paintings, which effectively convey the story's era and Southern setting. A few of the portraits may be stilted, but David's warmth shines through. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

PreSchool-Grade 2-Based on an incident in the childhood of a noted African-American jazz musician, this fictional memoir traces Francis's boyhood love of music and desire to play the drums. Fascinated by drummer "Brulla" Roberts, who leads a band down the streets of old Miami every Sunday, the six-year-old dreams of producing the same sound, and his parents buy him a toy drum. He rushes out to march with the band, but, on his first foray, the top of the instrument tears. Sick with disappointment, David tries various methods throughout the day to restore it, to no avail. The next morning, he wakes to find Roberts in the kitchen. The musician gives his own first drum to David, stating, "Drummer man's magic doesn't come from the drum. The magic comes from the drummer man.- You are a drummer man." The realistic oil paintings are framed in red and offer varying perspectives and a sense of historical place that invite readers into the story and lend an immediacy, yet timelessness, to the text. Giving a sense of growing up in a time when Miami was a small place, the authors show a young boy's fascination with drumming that rings true. This rewarding slice of life will inspire children to pursue their own dreams and talents.
Marge Loch-Wouters, Menasha's Public Library, WI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

K-Gr. 2. African American jazz drummer David "Panama" Francis relates how he got his first good drum in this memoir from his childhood. Lush oil paintings show Miami in the first half of the twentieth century, where Francis grew up in a prosperous family. A born drummer, Francis heard stories of magical island drums from his Haitian father and listened to march tunes on a Victrola. Unfortunately, when his loving parents bought him a drum, it proved too fragile for his enthusiastic pounding. Eventually, Francis received a beautiful steel drum by Brulla Roberts, a drummer and band leader the boy admired. The vibrant illustrations, with their rich colors and skillful use of white space, outshine the straightforward narrative. They create a strong sense of time and place as they expand Francis' personality. Shifting perspectives provide variety in the full-page pictures, and although facial features are occasionally stilted, the overall effect suits the energy of the story. Kathleen Odean
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Six-year-old David is a drummer. Ever since he can remember, he's felt the itch in his fingers and the rhythm in his wrists. Te ter tum...terum rum tum a tum a tum atummey tum te tum. He's tried keeping time with spoons, knives, shoes, even the legs of a kitchen chair his Mom later insisted he glue back together! It's nothing short of a miracle, therefore, when Mom and Dad present him with a real drum. It's also nothing less than a disaster when the drum tears a few short hours later. Aspiring young musicians will find hope -- and all youngsters will take pleasure -- in this touching memoir of jazz musician, Panama Francis. Luminous oil paintings, especially of young David in the midst of a marching band, further reveal the magic of music and the joy it gave to one drummer man from old Miami. 

Francis is a Marshall Cavendish author.