Never has music wrought more profound change than in this engaging bucolic tale from the author of Some Fine Grampa! (1995). Hallie and David Kennedy’s new cow Cassie won’t give milk. Even the vet doesn’t know what to do, but retired librarian Vivian Keats, who always does, suggests playing music. The young folks’ father, Myles, hauls out his short-wave radio (this is Cape Breton Island, where the airwaves carry limited musical choices), and tunes in to a classical station. The results are as unexpected as they are immediate. Cassie begins to talk, and not just in monosyllables either: after hearing Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony, she rhapsodizes, “ ‘How does he feel so much? And then once he feels these things, how does he make us feel along with him? How does he make sound tell us about open fields and green grass and hills and trees and streams and thunder and lightning?’ ” And so on. In fact, Cassie becomes insufferable on the subject, urgently questioning her human associates, demanding to hear live music, and then to play it herself. But what instrument can a cow play? After much experimentation, the Kennedys, patiently putting up with Cassie’s sulks and rages, concoct a giant keyboard from plastic tarps and electrical wires, and even find music teachers for their budding artiste. Weeks of dedicated practice later, Cassie is ready for her public debut. Her performance of an obscure Beethoven rondo at the local high school is a smash hit, earning her an invitation to play with a professional orchestra in a real concert hall. That too is a triumph—until the crushing review appears in the next morning’s paper. Arkin plays the “prima donna” trope with a sure hand and hilarious results, but his bovine protagonist is saved from caricature by the evident depth and sincerity of her response to music. Whether readers’ acquaintance with great music is intimate or just nodding, this epiphanic episode is sure to incite laughter and deeper thoughts. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7868-0564-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
PLB 0-688-15269-4 George offers alert naturalists a chance to go sleuthing around the world, and the results are invigorationg. Miss Lewis, a teacher, is off circumnavigating Earth; she corresponds with the students back home, telling of her travels and the creatures she encounters in Peru, Antarctica, Kenya, China, Japan, Australia, Alaska, and an island off the coast of California. She describes the wildlife, mentions particular sites she visits, often throws in an anthropological nugget or two, and then ends with a question that relates to some unusual trace that has been left by an animal—gouges taken out of cliff faces, a tree stripped bare, mysterious snowballs around a hot spring, a trail cut through the stony tundra. The animal is subsequently identified, although readers will not know until the end of the book, where the traces are explained, exactly what has transpired. George doesn’t try to cram every page with information, but is selective, choosing material that distills the unique character of a place. Excellent, highly detailed illustrations accompany the text. (maps) (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-15268-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
PLB 0-688-15542-1 My Day In The Garden ($16.00; PLB $15.93; Apr.; 24 pp.; 0-688-15541-3; PLB 0-688-15542-1): The creative heroines in this gentle story of easy companionship show that rainy days can be full of fun. “Berry-picking with the birds./Lunch with the ladybugs./Under a tree for a nap,” are among the scenes; with the aid of costumes and the girls’ imaginations, the foursome create their own party, dressing up as butterflies, ladybugs, crickets, even worms. They eat, wriggle, sing, and play hide-and-seek. As darkness falls, the girls disband, and one child is seen asleep, with more dreams of the garden dancing in her head. Lobel’s idyllic illustrations are as lovely as a sunny summer afternoon, while the lyrical text demonstrates inventive simplicity. Charming. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: April 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-15541-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1999
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