The Bremen Town Musicians [Hardcover]

David Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1997

A retelling of the Grimm tale in which an old donkey, dog, cat, and rooster, no longer wanted by their masters, set out for Bremen to become musicians.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

K-Gr 3--A retelling of the well-known tale of four animals, too old to be of use to their owners, who join forces and, by serenading a band of robbers, find a home. The illustrations are done in delicate ink outlines, then colored with what appear to be overlays of colored pencil and spattered paint in subtle colors. They are well drawn, and potentially lovely, but Johnson has given every character oddly mismatched disks--one red, one blue--in place of eyes, which makes them all look decidedly loony and rather unsettling. In addition, the narration is written in a peculiarly inflated vocabulary that makes the book too difficult for independent reading. The accompanying CD, read with a working-class British accent by actor Bob Hoskins, is underlined with lively, jazzy, and expressive music played on piano, saxophone, violin, and bass; it does a lot to redeem the package. Janet Stevens has retold and illustrated the same tale (Holiday, 1992) with a simpler text and her delightfully scruffy trademark animals, while Hans Wilhelm's cheerier version (Scholastic, 1992) has robbers of both sexes (who closely resemble the animals' uncaring owners), as well as a more accessible vocabulary.

Pam Gosner, formerly at Maplewood Memorial Library, NJ

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Juv) (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689802366
• ISBN-13: 978-0689802362
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,603,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Versions of this Book, January 22, 2006

By 

Lily White (Illinois) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Bremen Town Musicians (Hardcover)

I collect children's illustrated books and within that hobby I

also have a collection of The Bremen Town Musicians. I chose to

make a collection of this particular book because 1) my ancestors

came from the area near Bremen about 150 years ago and 2) I love

architecture and this story lends itself to

some marvelous old German architectural illustrations. I have

discovered, so far, 54 different versions of this story. I have

24 of them, including 5 written in German. This is one

of my favorites. First, the story is better fleshed out than most.

I can't read German so I have never read the original version

but I strongly suspect this comes closer to it than most of the books.

I do have to agree with with the School Journal Library reviewer

that the red and blue discs used in place of eyes is a bit

distracting - at first, but in the end Johnson's illustrations

are among my favorite for this title also.

I disagree with that reviewer that the language is too advanced.

One thing I learned a long time ago is that you do not have to

read every word, if you are reading to a little one,

and sometimes you don't even have to read every page. Highly

imaginative children (such as my 4 year old granddaughter!) are

also very good in filling in the blanks, making up their own

story to go with the illustrations.

Among other favorites are the brand new one illustrated by

Niroot Puttapipat and a 1980's book illustrated by Martin Ursell.