The Cello of Mr. O [Hardcover]

Jane Cutler (Author), Greg Couch (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

In a ravaged, war-torn city, where heat must come from burning furniture and even cherished books, where even the relief truck is destroyed by enemy fire, how can people find hope? In this powerfully evocative picture book, one little girl discovers the answer.

Mr. O is a crotchety old man. The heroine of this story and her friends like to tease him--they run in the halls, making noise, and they pop paper bags outside his door. But every Wednesday afternoon, when the relief truck used to bring flour and other staples, Mr. O marches into the square, sits down, and begins to play his cello. It's not until the Wednesday when a bomb again hits the square that the little girl realizes what Mr. O has been trying to teach them all: that music--and courage--can sustain the spirit just as bread sustains the body.

Jane Cutler has created a poignant tribute to the unnamed city of Sarajevo in a story that celebrates the kinship between generations. Greg Couch's timeless illustrations, abstract in form yet piercingly beautiful in the emotions they capture, portray at once the tragedy of war and the power of human dignity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"At night, from my window, I can see the white trails of tracer fire and the orange flash of mortars in the sky. I pretend I am watching shooting stars and meteors," says the nameless girl protagonist of Cutler's (The Song of the Molimo) moving and, sadly, timely story of the healing power of music in wartime. With winter approaching, food scarce and her father off fighting, the high point of the girl's week is Wednesday, when the relief truck arrives and the community gathers. Most days, she sits with the other children under the stairs until their high energy levels send them running through the halls, where they taunt an unsociable musician named Mr. O. As the girl stands outside his apartment, she remembers how her father described the craftsmanship of Mr. O's cello and the command performances of the cellist's youth. When a rocket destroys the relief truck, Mr. O surprises the children by courageously playing music in the middle of the square and lifting their spirits. Couch's (Wild Child, reviewed above) soft-focus watercolors in burnished shades of gold, copper and fiery red have a dreamlike quality that effectively contrast with the unsentimental narration. He mixes realistic scenes of the war-torn landscape with a surreal sense of war's intrusion on this child's life. While more details about the mysterious Mr. O might have made his change of heart more believable, Cutler's focus on turning calamity on its head will likely have an uplifting effect on readers young and old. Ages 5-9. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Grade 1-4-In poetic prose, a young girl describes what it is like to live in a city ravaged by war. Schools are closed, electricity and telephone service is out, and the only consolation is the arrival each Wednesday of the relief truck bringing food and supplies. To pass time, the children play together in the hallways. When they make too much noise, an elderly musician, Mr. O, opens his apartment door and scolds them. No one, not even the adults, talks to Mr. O, who keeps to himself. But the week after the relief truck is bombed, the old man takes his cello into the courtyard and plays for all of the frightened, hungry people. The music is described as something "which feeds us as truly as the supplies brought by the truck did." Later, when the cello is destroyed by more shelling, the little girl wonders, "What will feed us now?" These and a few other didactic statements, jarringly atypical of any child, mar an otherwise lovely story. Couch's watercolor illustrations, however, are absolute perfection. In warm earth tones, the artist has captured both the emotion and the details of civilian life under siege. While the war is not named, readers may infer a reference to the Balkan conflict. In spite of a little excess verbiage, this is an inspiring story.
Jackie Hechtkopf, University of Maryland, College Park
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1st edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525461191
• ISBN-13: 978-0525461197
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #356,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of Music, June 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cello of Mr. O (Hardcover)

I found this book to be beautifully illustrated as well as artfully comunicated with a very dramatic message about the power of music. I am curious to know whether the story is based on the cellist Vedran Smailovic who played in the streets of Sarajevo for 22 days in 1992 after 22 people were massacred in a mortar attack in Bosnia. Even though the reading level is designated for 4-8 year olds, the thematic content is appropriate for people of all ages. This book is a gem!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A dose of bittersweet reality, December 27, 2001

By 

S. A. Farley "sally1590" (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cello of Mr. O (Hardcover)

This book was above my almost-four-year-olds head, but I can see the positive educational impact it might have for older children in a classroom setting - perhaps children learning about life in war-torn countries.

The illustrations are beautiful and the story is bittersweet - there's war going on all around the poor narrator and the future is so frightening and uncertain. A neighbor - a cellist - makes a brave move to brighten the lives of his neighbors - just a little bit - and help make them feel less afraid.

I'd recommend this book for mid-level gradeschoolers and be prepared to discuss this further with them, using current/recent events for examples.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent but Sad Tale: Parents Beware, August 1, 2001

By 

Ivy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cello of Mr. O (Hardcover)

Although The Cello of Mr. O is well-written and beautifully illustrated, it is not a normal picture book. It has a rather disturbing setting - a modern, war-torn city, filled with rubble and under almost constant attack - a theme that is extremely challenging for the average early reader, and an episode that is rather poignant if not downright sad.

The narrator tells of her life in a an unnamed city, where bombs fall every night. Her father is off fighting in the mountains. Her family has no fuel for heat - she worries that, if something does not change before the next winter, they will have to burn their books and furniture to keep warm - and subsist on Red Cross aid delivered by truck. She says that she is "almost always afraid" and "almost always angry." She and her friends hide much of the time; one of their few childish pleasures is exploding bags in front of the apartment belonging to the crabby and reclusive Mr. O, a cellist.

Things get worse in the city after the aid truck that makes deliveries is destroyed; no more deliveries can be made because the trucks are too much of a target. Mr O responds by entering the square in the open and playing his cello at the time when the aid truck would have come - the narrator describes his cello, a special and beautiful object made via the cooperation of people all over the world. Mr. O's playing brings hope to the city, but then his cello is destroyed, just as the truck was. Mr. O does not give up; instead, he continues playing in the same place and at the same time, only now he must use a harmonica.

Although the author tells this story very well, the essential components remain disturbing and tragic - as, I'm sure, she intended. Parents should review this book before reading it to their children, and it is probably not suitable for most children under 8 to read by themselves. Anyone who shares this with a child should be prepared for difficult questions and, from more sensitive kids, either tears or nightmares.

However, this book would make an excellent companion to a classroom unit on war, particularly with middle or high school students. The author does an excellent job of conveying the emotions and life of a child caught in a modern war, and convincingly protrays an act of courage and strength and all it represents. Adults also stand to gain a great deal from the book. I only wish that it was not presented as standard early-reader fare; it is not, on any level.