THE SOUND OF MUSIC
adapted by Bert Fink & illustrated by Dan Andreasen
“One of Maria’s favorite things was to sing out loud. Maria, however, lived and studied in a very serious place called Nonnberg Abbey…. It was in a beautiful city called Salzburg in a country called Austria.” From this wooden beginning, it just gets worse. Following the structure of the play rather than the film (though omitting much, including the slinky Baroness), Fink’s text adaptation unfolds in sub-folios on each spread, interspersed with song lyrics. Andreasen contributes bland characters in a muted palette cavorting stiffly on elaborate Alpine tableaux. The Anschluss is introduced so briefly children will be mystified by the ensuing flight. Between the listless prose, the uninspiring art, the lackluster paper engineering and the inherent, unfortunate silence of the format, a definite miss. Buy the DVD instead. (Pop-up/historical fiction. 5-8)