A charming collaboration that strikes just the right notes.
Actor Andrews and her daughter Walton Hamilton offer an account of the 11th-century monk who invented Solfège, which in turn became the modern system of musical staff notation.
Introducing Guido d’Arezzo as a small boy in Pomposa, Italy, the writers gracefully weave in details about his education in the monastery and the sounds that surrounded him. Finding it hard to memorize the hymns, he devised a notation system to make learning easier, using the six syllables that began the lines of a familiar hymn (“ut,” “re,” “mi,” “fa,” “sol," “la”). Though his teachers dismissed his ideas, he drew on them when he trained the choir at the cathedral of Arezzo, and his methods proved so successful he was invited to Rome by the pope. The book concludes by explaining that Guido’s notes changed over time; “ut” became “do,” and the seventh note, “ti,” was added later. This leads smoothly into illustrated scenes of monastery life accompanied by the lyrics of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song made famous by Andrews’ performance in the film version of their musical The Sound of Music. Fedele’s playful art, done in watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil, expresses contrasting moods beautifully and adds context. Extensive backmatter makes this useful for an even older audience. Even libraries still owning Susan Roth’s Do, Re, Mi (2007) will want this richer depiction. The characters present as White. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A charming collaboration that strikes just the right notes. (note about the song, glossary, details on Guido’s life in the abbey, information on the Guidonian Hand, historical note) (Informational picture book. 6-10)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-26590-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses.
An NBA star pays tribute to the influence of his grandfather.
In the same vein as his Long Shot (2009), illustrated by Frank Morrison, this latest from Paul prioritizes values and character: “My granddad Papa Chilly had dreams that came true,” he writes, “so maybe if I listen and watch him, / mine will too.” So it is that the wide-eyed Black child in the simply drawn illustrations rises early to get to the playground hoops before anyone else, watches his elder working hard and respecting others, hears him cheering along with the rest of the family from the stands during games, and recalls in a prose afterword that his grandfather wasn’t one to lecture but taught by example. Paul mentions in both the text and the backmatter that Papa Chilly was the first African American to own a service station in North Carolina (his presumed dream) but not that he was killed in a robbery, which has the effect of keeping the overall tone positive and the instructional content one-dimensional. Figures in the pictures are mostly dark-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Blandly inspirational fare made to evoke equally shrink-wrapped responses. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-81003-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Blandly laudatory.
The iconic animator introduces young readers to each “happy place” in his life.
The tally begins with his childhood home in Marceline, Missouri, and climaxes with Disneyland (carefully designed to be “the happiest place on Earth”), but the account really centers on finding his true happy place, not on a map but in drawing. In sketching out his early flubs and later rocket to the top, the fictive narrator gives Ub Iwerks and other Disney studio workers a nod (leaving his labor disputes with them unmentioned) and squeezes in quick references to his animated films, from Steamboat Willie to Winnie the Pooh (sans Fantasia and Song of the South). Eliopoulos incorporates stills from the films into his cartoon illustrations and, characteristically for this series, depicts Disney as a caricature, trademark mustache in place on outsized head even in childhood years and child sized even as an adult. Human figures default to white, with occasional people of color in crowd scenes and (ahistorically) in the animation studio. One unidentified animator builds up the role-modeling with an observation that Walt and Mickey were really the same (“Both fearless; both resourceful”). An assertion toward the end—“So when do you stop being a child? When you stop dreaming”—muddles the overall follow-your-bliss message. A timeline to the EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening offers photos of the man with select associates, rodent and otherwise. An additional series entry, I Am Marie Curie, publishes simultaneously, featuring a gowned, toddler-sized version of the groundbreaking physicist accepting her two Nobel prizes.
Blandly laudatory. (bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2875-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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