LONG LIVE MUSIC!

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Grade 3-6-A boy and his dog strive to protect melody and rhythm from a destructive giant named Silence by going into "the big music book" and learning about music's inception and history. The information presented via the story device is good, albeit rather rushed. The European slant is evident in the writing about the rich music of the continent in the 1800s. "While all this was happening in Europe, in the United States, blacks sang gospel and blues as they worked in the fields"-a pretty succinct summary of American music. The four groupings of instruments from all over the world-aerophones, idiophones, chordophones, and membranophones-are cleverly illustrated on double-page spreads toward the end of the book. Instructions for making a washtub bass seem extraneous but fun. The cluttered illustrations are very modern. A mermaid with a diaphanous bra on the Greek music spread and a scantily clad Brunhilde on the opera spread attest to a more sophisticated, European audience. Music teachers could find this title useful in pulling in some reluctant learners; however, it is not suitable for reading aloud, and the picture-book format might be off-putting to older children. A book for a limited audience.
Mollie Bynum, formerly at Chester Valley Elementary School, Anchorage, AK
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Part Where's Waldo?, part music history and unmistakably European in origin and flavor, this outsize French import gets its oomph from over-the-top graphics. Musical terms, notes and symbols dance across the pages, joined by a trio of cartoon-like characters. Pursued by Silence the giant, Pippo the dog and a boy named Phil take readers on a whirlwind tour of the origins and development of music. The two take shelter inside a book crammed with information about music. Each turn of the page leads them to a different era, briefly outlined in text and amplified with playful illustrations. A section describing music's prehistoric origins, for instance, features Pippo trying to hide from Silence by literally fading into the background-here, a cave painting. Witty visual asides (Phil springing Pippo from "jail"-actually the inside of a guitar) and clever perspectives (at one point readers seem to be perched atop the giant's bald pate, peering down at the page over his and Karl Malden-esque nose) threaten to steal the show, but readers will still hear the story's message loud and clear. Well worth a close look. All ages.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This seductive and spirited history of music and musical instruments starts at the beginning with Neolithic bone flutes. Proceeding through warm, cartoonish illustrations--lushly colored and boldly outlined--Les Chats Pel‚s (an artists' collective) introduce such items as the Celtic warrior trumpet and Chinese mouth organ, the lyres and aulos of the Greeks, the Gregorian chants of medieval monks. From there readers press onward to operas and symphonies, blues and jazz, ska and punk. Music is given a context--sometimes considered a gift of the gods, sometimes thought to be the work of the devil--and there is a pleasing emphasis on its populist aspects: the minstrels who entertained in the streets of the Middle Ages, the public theater that brought opera to the hoi polloi, the colossal gatherings such as Woodstock. There is even a page on how to build a washtub bass. Each of the four families of musical instruments--wind, rhythm, string, and drum-- are discussed, with examples drawn from far and wide. On each page, Silence the Giant (mildly) threatens to foreclose on the festivities, but he doesn't stand a chance of muffling this kinetic celebration. (Picture book. 4-10) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.