The Enchanted Symphony

August 1, 2023
Actor Andrews and her daughter Walton Hamilton pay tribute to the power of music. The inhabitants of a small village are happy with "simple pleasures" until they commercialize to attract tourists...whereupon a dismal purple mist creeps in and thickens to the point that people stop visiting or even going outside. Then one day little Piccolino, who is helping his father dust the deserted opera house, plinks out a tune on the piano...and notices that the palms in the lobby look fresher. The brown-skinned pair proceed to gather wilting houseplants from all over town, park them in the auditorium seats, and call the orchestra members in for a concert. The plants flourish, the fog lifts, and throngs of villagers are drawn out into the streets by the music to dance and sing. Everyone realizes that "if they remained faithful to all that matters most, nothing could darken their days again." In a closing note the authors state that they were inspired by an actual concert played in Barcelona in 2020 to an "audience" of plants--a piece of performance art more likely to stimulate discussion than this trite, sugary mess. The illustrations are one bright spot: MacKay places her gracefully posed, diverse figures in luminously hued scenes of narrow streets and neatly kept buildings perched on a steep hill and threaded with musical staves. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Sweet art, cloying storyline. (Picture book. 6-8)

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October 16, 2023
Music drives away a depressive fog in this inventively illustrated fable. After the creative residents of an idyllic village lose touch with “their own simple pleasures,” a purple mist covers the town, keeping everyone indoors. Young Piccolino and his orchestra maestro father nevertheless clean the opera house each week, and Piccolino soon discovers that playing music perks up the lobby palms. This leads the brown-skinned father and son to devise a plan to brighten the village’s sickly plants—and, by extension, help cure the town’s malaise. Though the plot feels a bit hazy at times, Andrews and Hamilton employ a gentle fairy tale lilt to explore art’s effect on all kinds of life. McKay’s dynamic illustrations, which portray individuals of varying skin tones, make up an engaging narrative of their own, layering lighted cut-outs before photographing to create deep shadows and a glowing effect. An author’s note describes the story’s inspiration in a Barcelona string quartet’s performance during Covid lockdowns for a concert hall filled with plants. Ages 4–8.

April 19, 2024
In this delightful story about the power of music by Andrews and her daughter, Hamilton, breathtaking, whimsical illustrations elevate a tale of community, family, and the arts. Set in a charming, unnamed village, a small boy, Piccolino, and his neighbors find themselves perplexed when a mysterious, thick purple fog covers everything. Usually focused on making money from tourists, the trapped villagers languish. The plants and animals around them also begin to wither. While helping his maestro father clean the opera house, Piccolino notices that the indoor plants perk up when he plays the piano. Piccolino, his father, and the rest of the local orchestra join forces to rescue their village. McKay's vibrant artwork, three-dimensional, layered cut-paper collage illuminated by carefully placed lights, artfully uses color to evoke the various moods in the story. Villagers with different facial features and skin colors throughout the book add diversity. An author's note speaks to the inspiration for this beautiful, imaginative story reflecting on COVID-19 and how it impacted the arts and communities.

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