Rondo in C - Hardcover

Rezensionen

Kindergarten-Grade 3 A young girl plays a Beethoven piece at her piano recital, and each spread shows how a different member of the audience responds to the music with separate, personal images. As the narrative voice changes from page to page, the book's flow is jolted. The illustrations, done in rich, luminous pastels, acknowledge the problem by presenting a portrait of each guest on one side of a double spread, facing a representation of the person's vision. However, the pictures are static, and there remains a disconnectedness in the shifting images. While the gentle poem treats an important themethe power of art to elicit creative interpretationit is more about evocation than it is evocative, and is not substantial enough to support an entire book. Karen Litton, Confederation Centre Public Library, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Can .
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A girl at her piano recital plays " 'Beethoven's Rondo in C' lovely piece!" A man in the audience muses, "Strange how it brings to mind south-flying geese." One by one each member of the audience responds to the music, and each double-page spread becomes a portrait of the present juxtaposed with a tantalizing glimpse of that person's past. The music reminds a pensive girl in a pink ruffled dress of "the first squint of sunlight on the water in Maine," which is pictured opposite. A white-haired woman in a shawl listens intently, remembering her youth at a ball in Vienna. Though the text and concept may be difficult for children to understand, there are riches in this book well worth the mastery. Wentworth's pastel portraits are powerfully evocative, and Fleischman's rhymed couplets present poetically condensed moments from each listener's life. "Bravo . . . for that 'Rondo in C'!" Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.