The Note Who Faced the Music

K-Gr 3--Half Note is feeling underappreciated in this hilarious story about musical notes and the value of everyone. The Half Note notices how wonderful everyone else sounds, but her own beat just isn't enough anymore, so she boards a train to head for the end of the line. Will the composer be able to lure her back? Music lovers and children who have had enough training to be in on the joke will appreciate the puns that abound through the story, and the happy ending is sure to please just about everyone. The exuberant artwork, a mad blend of comic-book style and Saturday morning cartoons, adds to the fun of the story. VERDICT A good choice for libraries needing stories for the music section or for funny books with wordplay.--Debbie Tanner

Nonstop wordplay and a familiar plot about fitting in bolster this educational music theory text. Though Composer, portrayed with light skin and black hair, is clear that all notes are "important to the musical staff," Half Note doesn’t "feel whole." Seeing itself as insignificant next to Whole Note, which can "fill a whole measure," and "quick and upbeat" Eighth Note, Half Note hops a train for the "end of the line"-the coda. But when Composer tries to conduct a favorite song without Half Note, an "offbeat," "awful" cacophony ensues, and only one note can save the day. Though tongue-in-cheek text doesn’t initially introduce the subject matter behind the puns, Bonilla’s predictable plot gives readers space to gain a rudimentary familiarity with note lengths and music terminology, making it well suited for classroom use alongside instruction. Bold, angularly rendered acrylic and colored pencil images from Hoffmann offer quirky anthropomorphized visualizations of each note. A glossary concludes. Ages 4-8

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