Peter and the Wolf (1936)

0874990734 ISBN for Book only

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This is a wonderfully charming telling and depiction of Serge Prokofieff's classic musical tale for children. Chappell's illustrations are delightful and Holland's calligraphy sublime. The inclusion of the familiar musical theme passages for each character at appropriate points within the text effectively plants the aural element in the reader's mind. And the foreword by renowned Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitzky further serves to stamp this edition as "definitive." ( )

I expected to love this book....and I didn't :) I really wanted to see how Rashcka would handle this "jazz standard" of the elementary music classroom. I can't say that I was disappointed as much as disinterested in the verbal aesthetic. The artwork was incredible. I felt like Rashcka missed his audience a bit with this book - placing too many silly words on a page and overdoing the effect. Younger elementary kids would find that the book moves to slowly. Older kids might be put off by the voice. I do love any way to re-imagine this lesson which, when I'm teaching, can easily feel like I'm offering my students twice-warmed Dinty-Moore stew.

Taking into account my own reader response (one sleepy mid-afternoon reader here), I think it's only fair to Raschka that I read this book again, and aloud before striking my gavel too hard and declaring it guilty of inducing snoozes.

So schön, dass dieser Klassiker nun wieder zu haben ist - die Illustrationen von Frans Haacken sind für mich immer noch der Standard (gerade, weil sie so grafisch sind) und werden der Musik sehr gerecht. Zusammen mit der Einspielung von Mathias Wiemann als Sprecher fühle ich mich in die Kindheit zurückversetzt. ( )