Music is all around. One need only listen.
A composer hits all the wrong notes until he hears music from unexpected sources.
Lenny lives with his cat, Pipo, in Paris. Uninspired while trying to write a symphony, he stares dejectedly at his empty page when…Pipo laps at his water bowl and—why not?—Lenny writes these sounds down. A dripping faucet and tweeting birds supply additional “notes.” Then more present themselves: a bicycle bell, metal shutters against a shop’s door, a barking dog. Lenny acknowledges these certainly feel musical, so they belong in his composition, too. A buzzing bee convinces Lenny to venture into the park, and oh, what musical magic emerges from the multitude of sounds on offer: “The symphony of life!” Lenny happily returns home, his formerly blank page now “full of ideas.” His symphony is actually transcribed on a page of sheet music, and savvy readers who wish to do so may try playing it. The simple plot isn’t original, but it is lively and stimulating, inviting listeners to join in. Youngsters will remain engaged and enjoy mimicking the onomatopoeic sounds for the assorted noisemakers throughout; these are rendered in italicized, larger type. The loose, cartoon illustrations are expressive and child appealing. Lenny is white; other characters are diverse.
Music is all around. One need only listen. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-374-30315-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lively celebration of music and expressive dance.
The beat is all around her when a girl takes a walk in the park with her mother.
On a lovely summer day, a young African-American girl in a bright pink sundress and matching sneakers sees, smells, sings, claps and snaps her fingers to an internal rhythm. As a boom box plays its song and a drummer taps his beat, neighborhood children join her in an energetic, pulsating dance culminating in a rousing musical parade. Schofield-Morrison’s brief text has a shout-it-out element as each spread resounds with a two-word phrase: “I shook a rhythm with my hips. /SHAKE SHAKE”; “I tapped the rhythm with my toes. / TIP TAP.” Morrison’s full-bleed, textured oil paintings capture the joy of a mother and daughter in an urban park surrounded by musicians, food vendors and many exuberant children. Read this aloud with music playing loudly—not in the background. Morrison is a Coretta Scott King/New Talent Award winner, and this is a fine debut for his wife in their first collaboration.
A lively celebration of music and expressive dance. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: June 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61963-178-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat.
Dinos that love to move and groove get children counting from one to 10—and perhaps moving to the beat.
Beginning with a solo bop by a female dino (she has eyelashes, doncha know), the dinosaur dance party begins. Each turn of the page adds another dino and a change in the dance genre: waltz, country line dancing, disco, limbo, square dancing, hip-hop, and swing. As the party would be incomplete without the moonwalk, the T. Rex does the honors…and once they are beyond their initial panic at his appearance, the onlookers cheer wildly. The repeated refrain on each spread allows for audience participation, though it doesn’t easily trip off the tongue: “They hear a swish. / What’s this? / One more? / One more dino on the floor.” Some of the prehistoric beasts are easily identifiable—pterodactyl, ankylosaurus, triceratops—but others will be known only to the dino-obsessed; none are identified, other than T-Rex. Packed spreads filled with psychedelically colored dinos sporting blocks of color, stripes, or polka dots (and infectious looks of joy) make identification even more difficult, to say nothing of counting them. Indeed, this fails as a counting primer: there are extra animals (and sometimes a grumpy T-Rex) in the backgrounds, and the next dino to join the party pokes its head into the frame on the page before. Besides all that, most kids won’t get the dance references.
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-1598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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