Ty's One-Man Band [Paperback]

Mildred Pitts Walter (Author), Margot Tomes (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1984 | Age Level: 4 and up

On a hot, humdrum day Ty meets a man who, using a washboard, comb, spoons, and pail, fills that night with music.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Paperback
• Publisher: Scholastic (May 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0590401785
• ISBN-13: 978-0590401784
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 7.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,787,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Making of Music, January 29, 2001

By 

Kimberly Graham (Gary, IN USA!) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ty's One-Man Band (Paperback)

I am an elementary education student and I have to read 25 childrens' literature books. I decided on this book by just randomly choosing this book. I like this book a lot! I like the fact that the man with the story took something ordinary and made it extraordinary. Using everyday items to make music just goes to show you that it's not what you have but how you use what you have.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Words as music, February 3, 2002

By 

Alyssa A. Lappen (Earth) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ty's One-Man Band (Paperback)

This electric 34-page picture book makes language into music. Written in 1980, the story is set in about the 1930s, in the rural South.

A young boy's mother washed clothes and his father was busy unloading feed for the chickens. "The sun rose aflame. It quickly dried the dew and baked the town. Another hot, humdrum day."

Ty asked his brother to join him in a walk to the pond. When Jason declined, Ty went alone. He took in the big trees, which sank their roots deep and lifted the branches up, up, up toward the sky. Then he heard a step-th-hump, step-th-hump, step-th-hump, and compared the mystery sound to the churr-rrr-rrr of raccoon babies and the purr-rrr of kittens.

It came from a man carrying a bundle, a man with one leg and a leg made of a wooden peg. The man sat down by the pond and washed himself, unwrapped his bundle and ate apples, cheese and bread. After washing his dishes, he began to juggle them. His juggling made music, which the language creates: tink-ki-tink-ki-ki-tink-ki-tink. And so on, for a whole page.

Ty watched from the grass. Then came a rumble like thunder in the distance--a train. Woo-woo-woo-ee-ee-eee. Ty forgot the man as he listened to the clackety-clack of and the train whistle as the wheels died away. The man he had been watching leapt out of the grass and laughed, introduced himself as Andro, a one-man band. He asked Ty to borrow a washboard, two wooden spoons, a tin pail and a comb.

Ty returned home and stunned his brother, sister, father and mother with the story of the one-legged man, but borrowed everything he needed by sundown. The next 12 pages of the book bcome a veritable concert.

There are many lessons in this book. The primary one is how little one needs for happiness. The second is that language itself can be music.

Children love it. Alyssa A. Lappen