THE SINGING STONES

In ancient times, a village cast out David, a dreamy idle boy, with the five flat, oval stones that they had found wailing in the middle of the town square. The villagers were convinced that the stones were bewitched and only David wanted to save them. David treks from hermit to court jester and from pillar to post trying to discover why the stones wail. At last, idly pushing them around on different levels of a rail fence, the wail turns to harmony -- David has discovered musical notation for a receptive world. The story is clever and simple. The plot, dialogue and characters are the kind that are tempting and easy for children to act out. Early grade teachers should be made aware of the potential for home-made musical comedy here. The illustrations by Gertrude Lueck are cleverly distorted stereotypes of elders, scholars, hermits etc., but they produce one complaint -- for no obvious reason, both ancient and modern dress are put on the villagers illustrated.