Vivaldi's Four Seasons

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today by Practically Paradise

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at Teacher Mentor Texts

Charlesbridge

(pub. 7.1.12) 48 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Anna Harwell Celenza

     and Illustrator:  JoAnn E. Kitchel

C haracter: Antonio Vivaldi

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "In eighteenth-century Venice, Italy, the city is afloat with music. The finest performances are heard at an orphanage called the Ospedale della Pieta. Hidden from the audience behind a screen, an orchestra consisting of young orphan girls dazzles devoted fans.

      Encouraged by the imagination of their music teacher Antonio Vivaldi, the girls ind stories and characters in each composition they play. But the governors of the orphanage frown upon Vivaldi's fanciful ways.

     When Vivaldi and his students are separated, the musician is inspired to compose a set of concertos that mark the passing of time - the great baroque masterpiece entitled The Four Seasons. With the help of Anna Maria, the oldest girl, the young musicians find the courage to bring Vivaldi's musical stories to life on their own in this heartwarming story of friendship, imagination, and the transformative power of music."

        

T antalizing taste: 

     "Vivaldi became an international success.

     Still, something was missing: the rainstorms of the

Venetian spring, the buzzing bees of summer, the sweet

apples of autumn, and the frozen canals of winter.

With each passing season Vivaldi missed Venice more.

Most of all he missed his young friends at the Pieta."

          

and something more: I was fascinated to learn that Antonio Vivaldi, known as "Il Prete Rosso," was a priest who taught music to orphaned and abandoned girls, some with physical disabilities and illnesses, during his early career. How I wish I could have heard those orphan girls perform beautiful baroque music in Venice's St. Mark's Basilica. However, I savored listening to the CD (included in the book) of the Venice Baroque Orchestra's wonderful performance of The Four Seasons. 

     In the Author's Note of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Georgetown University professor of music Anna Harwell Celenza explains that when Vivaldi's "concertos were finally published in 1725, four explanatory sonnets accompanied them. According to Vivaldi, these sonnets [set forth in the back of the book] were written after the music was composed. I like to think that he might have created them with the girls at the Pieta in mind." I think so, too!

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When Bob Met Woody

The Story of the Young Bob Dylan

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday hosted today by Capstone Connect
and joins It's Monday! What are you reading? at Teacher Mentor Texts

LIttle Brown & Company

(pub. 5.3.2011) 40 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor: Gary Golio

     and Illustrator:  Marc Burckhardt

C haracter: Bob Dylan

O verview from the jacket flap: 

      "Bob Dylan is a musical icon, an American legend, and, quite simply, a poet. But before he became Bob Dylan, he was Bobby Zimmerman, a kid from rural Minnesota.

      This lyrical and gorgeously illustrated picture book biography follows Bob as he leaves his North Country mining town, takes on a new identity, and finally strikes out for New York City to pursue his love of music. He then meets his folk music hero, Woody Guthrie, and his life is changed forever."

        

T antalizing taste: 

   "May 1941. 

     Bob floated into this world on waves of sound.

     In the city of Duluth,

     on the shore of Lake Superior,

     in the cold North Country of Minnesota.

     To the music of ships' bells, seagulls' cries,

     and the rhythm of tumbling freight cars, young

     Bob Zimmerman began his life story."

          

and something more: I'm working on a picture book biography idea that connects two people so I've been studying these types of books.

I'm always drawn to the story behind a story, and I was interested to learn the background of this book. Gary Golio, the author of this picture book biography, When Bob Met Woody, writes in the Author's Note: "As a boy, I was always looking for heroes, just as Bob was looking for Woody even before he'd ever heard of him... it was Bob's search for his guiding star that inspired me to write this book."

Gary Golio explains that he did lots of research using books, videos, CDS, "[b]ut only when I read about Bob writing his 'Song to Woody' - using one of Woody's own melodies, a practice common in folk music - did I know where my story was going and why Woody was so important to Bob.  That's when all the pieces fell into place, even though there was still plenty of 'writing work' left to do."

And I liked this Bob Dylan quote: "All I can do is be me, whoever that is."

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Magritte's Marvelous HAT

This post is part of Nonfiction Monday hosted today by Wendie's Wanderings and
joins It's Monday! What are you reading?
at Teacher Mentor Texts

Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

(pub. 4.17.2012) 32 pages 

A True Tale with A Cherry On Top

A uthor and illustrator: D. B. Johnson

C haracter:  Rene Magritte, the artist, imagined as a dog in his surreal world

O verview from the jacket flap: 

       

     "Without pinching his ears or mussing his hair, the hat floats overhead and
helps him to paint. But can Magritte paint without it? Not in a surreal world
where paint can fly and hats can play hide-and-seek.

     ... D. B Johnson creates another masterpiece in this playful exploration

of one of the twentieth century's most celebrated artists, Rene Magritte..."

T antalizing taste: 

       "One bright day in the dark of night, the painter Magritte saw a marvelous hat in a store window.

       When he tried it on, the hat popped up and floated just above his head...

Magritte was excited about his hat. He hurried up to his room and went straight to the picture he was working on."

      For the very first time, painting was easy. His brush danced and the colors sang."

and something more:   The Author's Note says, "You try on a hat that floats in the air and leads you to a place where anything is possible and everything is impossible. This is not the 'real' world. You have entered a 'surreal' world of visual surprises... Ordinary things appear in unlikely places, and the familiar is suddenly very strange." D. B. Johnson's magical surreal illustrations, inspired by Magritte, create a world of fun and surprises. The use of the transparent overlays is such a creative concept to underscore this imaginative story. 

Today I'm giving a tour to a group of 5th graders at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and I will show them Magritte's painting, Personal Values. In this painting, he creates a paradoxical world by changing the proportions of ordinary objects -- such as a gigantic comb resting on top of a bed -- and filling a room with a blue sky and puffy clouds. Impossibly wonderful!

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