THE HUMAN MANDOLIN

by Moses L. Howard ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 18, 1975

An original fable, cast in the folktale mold, about an old African musician who loses his audience when the people move from villages to towns and become too busy for music. The old man then makes a mandolin and into it he rubs the ""merriest notes"" of the birds' songs, the lake's ""happy splashing sounds that sometimes tinkle like bells,"" the sound of wind humm(ing) merrily over the grass,"" and -- after a long search -- the sound of laughter which he finds among some goat herders. At last the man himself shrinks as he plays and slides into the mandolin, where the happy music is discovered years later after famine and sickness have driven the people back to their old agricultural villages. Barbara Morrow pleasantly interprets African scenes and motifs in prints of ink blue and browns, but she doesn't supply the force that is missing from both the incidents and the telling of Howard's worthy but weakly prescriptive tale.

Pub Date: Nov. 18, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975

Categories: CHILDREN'S