Tito Puente, Mambo King/Tito Puente: Rey del Mambo

As Brown explains, Tito Puente (1923–2000) made music his entire life, from banging “spoons and forks on pots and pans, windowsills and cans,” to learning the saxophone while serving in the Navy during WWII, studying at Juilliard, and leading the big band that carried his name. Brown’s bilingual text echoes the rhythms of salsa, mambo, and jazz (“The claves smacked clackity clackity clack clack”), yet feels somewhat subdued next to Lopez’s sizzling acrylics, which have a weathered, mural-like quality but are anything but flat. Ages 4–8. Agent: Stefanie Von Borstel, Full Circle Literary. (Mar.)