#thetroubleintunetown #blogblast #booksontour #day3
Today we will be reviewing Maura Pierlot and Sophie Norsa’s energetic and colourful story, The Trouble in Tune Town! We hope you enjoy this musical adventure! 🎶
The Trouble in Tune Town, Maura Pierlot (author), Sophie Norsa (illus.),Little Steps Publishing, August 2017. Joint Winner Best Illustrated E-Book (IPPY 2018).
Blurb:
Meg is Tune Town’s best music performer, but she’s having trouble rehearsing. So much trouble, in fact, that the notes have run right off the sheet!
Can Meg find the notes in time for her big concert? Or are they closer to home than she thought?
Review:
Amid a silencing cocophony of runaway music notes, Meg, Tune Town’s best performer, needs to finds her rhythm and soul to be able to play in the grand concert.
Nerves can play a big part in losing one’s groove, even for the most experienced entertainer. So when the fiery, red-headed Meg frets about her sharp flute scales, tense piano fingers and sluggish tuba tunes, her downbeat attitude causes the music notes to literally fly off the sheet. And so begins the comical frenzy of the disappearance of despondent, toneless tones and their effect on the performing band. But with a hum of harmonious collaboration, the delighted notes swing back into procession and a now more relaxed Meg can put on a show.
Pierlot has brilliantly captured an imaginative absurdity in this animated story of real life ‘troubles’. The text sets a rollicking, up-tempo rhyme that makes for an entertaining read aloud story for young children, whilst setting the tone with valuable messages in persistence, resilience and trying your best. “Practice should never be a fight. If you’re having fun, then you’re playing all right” is the motto underpinning this tale; eloquently encapsulated within the aura of character composure and community spirit. Norsa’s fluid watercolour and line illustrations offer humorous details and vivacious energy. Her images create that essential sense of movement and lively facial expressions. Norsa has also cleverly incorporated the curious antics of the supporting-act; Bravo the lyrebird – significant because of its ability to mimic sounds through song. Selected colourful and enlarged words corresponding to music language add interest and help children grasp the terminology, which is also detailed in the glossary at the end of the book.
The Trouble in Tune Town is a delightfully upbeat, dynamic and reassuring story with fun and alluring concepts to encourage musical and instrument exploration in a congenial way. Any music enthusiast from age three will actively sing out for this book time and time again.
Review by Romi Sharp.
The Trouble in Tune Town is available for purchase at Maura’s The Trouble in Tune Town website and at the Just Kids’ Lit Shop for a special tour price here.
SING IT LOUD! It’s G I V E A W A Y T I M E!
WIN a hardback copy of the groovalicious picture book, The Trouble in Tune Town by Maura Pierlot and Sophie Norsa!
In 25 words or less, what instrument are you?
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The Trouble in Tune Town will be officially launched on Sunday May 6 at the National Library of Australia, Canberra from 2PM, in association with Music for Canberra. There will music, activities, book reading and signing. Click the image for details.
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