American Latin Music by Matt Doden was published in 2017. This book is a non-fiction children’s book, 64 pages long with incredible pictures and easy-to-read descriptions. American Latin Music includes information about different styles of Latin music: tango, salsa, merengue, and rock n roll. It also talks about the famous Latin singers all around the world. Some of the famous people mentioned are Selena, Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and Jennifer Lopez. “My music, I think, is a fusion of many different elements. And I’m always experimenting. So I try not to limit myself, or put myself in a category, or be the architect of my own jail, you know?” Shakira says on page 50. This how she likes to try new things in her music and she always tries to challenge herself.

The main idea of the book is to tell the history about Latin music. For instance, it explains how, when slavery ended, the Africans stayed in Cuba and that the African heritage is a big part of Cuba’s culture. There are many different instruments featured in Latin music, including guitars, maracas, tambourines, and bongo drums. Ferdinand Lamothe says, on page 11, “If you can’t manage to put tinges of Spanish [Latin music] in your tunes, you will never be able to get the right seasoning, I call it, for jazz.” My favorite part about the book is recognizing the famous singers. I have seen and heard a lot of these people who currently sing and dance in movies and on TV shows I don’t think that there is anything that would make the book better