THE SONG FOR EVERYONE

A boy and a wren join forces to get everyone dancing in the street.

From the tiny top-story window of a modest home in a small neighborhood comes a “delicate tune,” originating from an unknown source. Those who hear the music experience a metamorphosis: A sad boy with shoulders hunched forgets his loneliness; the ache in an elderly woman’s bones disappears; and the townspeople are generally moved toward sharing “food and stories and kindnesses.” When the music stops and everyone slips into a depression, the townsfolk decide to hoist the boy though the window, where he finds a wren too tired to sing. After some TLC, the boy and the wren sing together from the window, and everyone feels joy once again. The music, depicted as a string of dainty flowers, swoops and swirls through the air; they envelop the elderly woman, morph into first an umbrella and then a bicycle wheel, and even lift a book lover to a high shelf. Though music lovers may relate to a melody’s ability to move one’s soul and lift the spirits, there is an underlying sentimentality in the notion that bird song can solve a community’s woes, which won’t be for everyone. Most of the townspeople have pale skin, including the boy, but a few have brown skin. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.8-by-20.4-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

This well-meaning but simplistic tale sounds an off note.