The Really Awful Musicians

PreS-Gr 2—When a king decides he can't stand the racket the royal musicians make, he bans music from the kingdom and feeds all the musicians to the crocodiles. Little Piffaro, who plays a pipe and drum, jumps onto an old horse named Charlemagne and escapes just ahead of the king's men-at-arms. Along the way, they pick up a fast-paced mandolin player named Espresso, Serena the Silent and her harp, Fortissimo and his incredibly loud sackbut, and slow-moving Lugubrio with his contrabass recorder. As Charlemagne carries them away from the kingdom, the musicians play their instruments—fast, slow, loud, soft—at the same time and completely oblivious of one another. Finally, the horse has had enough. "You guys sound terrible! Why don't you all play together?" He draws five long lines in the dirt and uses his hoof to indicate high, middle, and low notes. The musicians listen to one another while they play, and the resulting sound is beautiful. The king hears them, declares them the new royal musicians, and harmonious music is heard from then on. Manders's story zips along. The gouache and colored pencil caricature drawings of the musicians and their trailing onomatopoeic instruments' sounds as they flee the kingdom add to the humor and show their joy of music. An author's note describes the instruments and explains that Emperor Charlemagne was indeed responsible for the creation of musical notation. This fanciful tale is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT