A picture book is a whole package, every square inch valuable real estate. And Susanna Chapman, illustrator of The Fastest Drummer: Clap Your Hands for Viola Smith!, wastes none of that real estate as she lays the land for author Dean Robbins’s spare lyrical text. Together both text and art reveal Viola’s passion, intensity, and musicality.

The Smith Sisters Orchestra, an eight-member jazz band, was led by the girls’ musician father in the 1920s and ’30s; Viola played the drums and honed her skills through much practice and observation and from asking questions of other drummers. The sisters performed around the country, and after World War II most of the group went on to other endeavors — but not Viola. She played with several other bands and even arranged her own solo show, always ready to buck the musical system and speak out for female musicians. She continued to perform until her death at 107 years old.

Chapman makes liberal use of circles throughout her illustrations to portray not only Viola’s drums, but the music she produced and her constant physical motion. From the centering of Viola on her drums and the circular title around her on the cover of the book, to the polka dots on her dress on the title page, to the swirling waves of music portrayed in varying colors and intensities throughout the book, to the curls in Viola’s hair — circles dominate the illustrations.  

Contrasting with the circles is Chapman’s use of straight lines: the various sticks, mallets, and brushes Viola employed adorning the end pages, the banister of her stairs and striped wallpaper in her home, the bar and the staff of the musical notes, the straight lines of her dress, collar, and checkered blouse that she wore. This juxtaposition of circles and straight lines creates a tension that works beautifully to portray the intensity of Viola’s passion and work as a drummer at a time and place when the field was, and still is, dominated by men. 

Chapman’s use of bold, primary colors not only depicts Viola’s early innate talent and passion for the drums but her continuation of that driving force to play well into her tenth decade. Viola’s body positioning is fluid throughout the book, as she leans into playing, as she stretches to reach a cymbal, as she approaches another drummer to observe and question. The size, font, color, and placement of Robbins’s text adds to the volume, both literally and figuratively, of Viola’s story. 

As a female drummer, a long-time lover of biographies, and a member of the 2020 Caldecott Committee, I immediately recognized the beauty, excellence, and importance of this picture-book biography of Viola Smith, a little recognized, groundbreaking female drummer whose story needs to be told.

[Read The Horn Book Magazine review of The Fastest Drummer]