Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played the Piano for President Lincoln

by Margarita Engle

Rafael Lopez (Illustrator) and Rafael López (Illustrator)

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Book cover for Dancing Hands

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Winner of the Pura Belpré Illustrator Award
A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book

In soaring words and stunning illustrations, Margarita Engle and Rafael López tell the story of Teresa Carreño, a child prodigy who played piano for Abraham Lincoln.

As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals. Then a revolution in Venezuela forced her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too—the Civil War.

Still, Teresa kept playing, and soon she grew famous as the talented Piano Girl who could play anything from a folk song to a sonata. So famous, in fact, that President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play at the White House! Yet with the country torn apart by war, could Teresa’s music bring comfort to those who needed it most?
  • ISBN10 148148740X
  • ISBN13 9781481487405
  • Publish Date 27 August 2019
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Publisher Simon & Schuster
  • Imprint Atheneum Books for Young Readers
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 40
  • Language English