Piano Piano - Hardcover

Author: Davide Cali is the co-author of I Can't Wait(Artisan), winner of the 2005 Baobab prize. Davide lives in Genoa, Italy. Illustrator: Eric Heliot, a graduate of Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, has illustrated more than fifty books for children. He lives in Rouen, France.

Grade 1–2—Marcolino hates practicing scales, but does so because his mother wants him to live out her dream of becoming a grand pianist. His grandpa rescues him from this dreaded fate by reminding Mom how much she disliked playing the piano as a child and helping Marcolino choose a more appealing instrument—the tuba. Children suffering through a similar scenario may identify with the plot, but the ultra-mod style of Heliot's crisp color illustrations tends to overpower the story. Marcolino has overlong, stiff bangs and his mother is a tall, skinny woman with pointy breasts. Young children can more easily identify with Sharon Jennings's turtle in Franklin's Music Lessons (Kids Can, 2004). Beginning readers will find that Claudia Mills's Gus and Grandpa and the Piano Lesson (Farrar, 2004) is a more loving and realistic story.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT
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