A self-indulgent exercise that misses the mark as both a teaching tool and a memoir.
Remember how much you disliked music lessons when you were a little kid? Here’s your chance to revisit those magical times.
A veteran piano teacher, contributor to the New York Times and Fortune magazine and adjunct professor of music history at three East Coast universities, Tunstall loves the piano and gets no greater joy than imparting keyboard knowledge to her preteen and teenage private students. (Based on the book’s scant autobiographical sections, she doesn’t seem to have much of a life away from the keyboard.) She introduces us to more than a dozen of her young charges: Mark, who has trouble with minor keys; Christopher, who allegedly loves classical music; Max, who grew tired of classical and was reinvigorated by the Oscar Peterson Trio’s recording of “Summertime”; and so on. In this slim text, each child receives only slight attention. This is problematic, because the kids’ personalities and musical traits very quickly start to run together. Tunstall’s heart is in the right place. It’s evident she loves both her instrument and her students to a great degree, and she’s clearly a kind, giving individual. But her book is too simplistic for musical experts, who will find it covers overly familiar ground, and too heady for casual fans, who will be numbed by the technical material. Those looking for an engrossing memoir will be turned off by the jarring transitions between the autobiographical and the musical.
A self-indulgent exercise that misses the mark as both a teaching tool and a memoir.Pub Date: April 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4165-4050-2
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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