Customer Reviews

Ludwig van Beethoven (Musical Picture Book)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I ordered this book to be one of several donated to a local library, on behalf of some dear neighbors that wanted to do something in my mother's memory. My mother was a reading teacher, and loved the music of Beethoven. While she would have liked a couple things about this book, overall, I don't think she would have recommended it because of the editorial errors.

The illustrations in this book are lovely. I also liked the fact that it came with a CD, which you are supposed to play while reading the book. I read this book aloud with my 13 year-old while we played the ~ 50-minute CD. We stopped reading a few times to chat briefly about different parts. The CD ended about the time we finished the book.

I was disappointed that the CD selections did not include a recording of the piano sonata about which the author specifically comments. I can't refer to the page number of those comments because there are no page numbers in this book, which I thought was odd.

From the copyright information, we learned that this book was originally published in German. Maybe some of the errors can be attributed to the translation process. The most glaring was the word "you" that appeared at the end of one line of text. The word was separated, with the "y" on the end of that line, and the remaining "ou" at the beginning of the next line of text. On another page, there was a word omission. In addition, the story suffers from disconnects. Several of the two-page spreads could be read as stand-alone essays, with little transition between them.

I have decided not to include this book in the donation being made to the library. I will be purchasing a different children's book about Beethoven.