Review by Booklist Review
PreS-Gr. 2. Ever since she was a baby, all Violet has wanted to do is play music. When she enters kindergarten, she notices that every kid has some activity he or she likes--painting, pasting, playing in the sandbox--but no one loves music like Violet does. Then Violet grows old enough to play guitar, and while strumming in the park, she meets other kids playing instruments; together they form a band.ohnson tells a familiar story about alienation and then relief after a child finds other like-minded souls. What's fresh here is that Violet and her friends are never portrayed as sad outsiders. With tough, spirited optimism, Violet keeps doing the thing she loves, sure she'll eventually find other kids who have also dreamed music, thought music, all day long. Repetitive phrases and plenty of onomatopoeia continue the story's cheerful energy and beat, as do the busy, paint-and-collage candy-bright illustrations showing chocolate-brown Violet making music in a bustling city. --Gillian Engberg Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Although Violet's love of music ostensibly forms the heart of Johnson's (When I Am Old with You) story, the rhythm and joy of a child's delight in music comes through in neither text nor art. Starting in the nursery at the hospital, where the newborn Violet is already shaking her rattle, the heroine embarks on a years-long search for "other kids like her,/ who dreamed music,/ thought music,/ all day long." But she cannot find them among the babies in the hospital, the members of her family, the children at school or the sunbathers at the beach. Only when she's grown (or nearly so, it's hard to tell) does Violet find kindred spirits at last. The ending scenes strain to make Violet's experience universal. Retracing the narrative path Violet has followed, Violet's friends say they knew they'd find one another some day, " 'Cause when we were in the nursery,/ then were two,/ and later in kindergarten/ and at the beach,/ we kept on looking/ for kids playing music too!" The perspectives and colors in Huliska-Beith's (Favorite Things) mixed-media illustrations are playful, and they incorporate tiny, humorous details that bear scrutiny, as when four star-like suns wear wristwatches marking the time "from morning till that night." However, the intensely patterned, freeform spreads can also be distracting, as when a baby in the nursery scene appears to levitate above its crib. The effect is more stream-of-consciousness than harmonious. Ages 4-up. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-This is a jazzy story about an African-American girl who loves music. From the time she was a baby banging out rhythms with her rattle or a two-year-old making a horn to toot on or a kindergartner looking for other kids with the same passion, Violet played and sang, and hummed and thought about music all the time. Then "one day a few summers later," she finds Angel, Randy, and Juan, all of whom are kindred spirits, to jam with. And the best part is that every one of them knew that they would find one another. With an upbeat text that uses lots of sound words, this tale celebrates music as much as it applauds being true to what you love. Violet seems perfectly happy to keep on making music and looking for fellow musicians. She never gives up in either pursuit, and in the end is rewarded for her perseverance. Done in acrylics and collage, the lively illustrations seem to move on the page. Violet and her friends have round, smiling faces; elongated arms and legs; and play instruments that have a life and movement all their own. Pair this title with Judy Cox's My Family Plays Music (Holiday, 2003) or Lloyd Moss's Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin (S & S, 1995) and Music Is (Putnam, 2003) for a rousing storytime.-Jane Marino, Bronxville Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Since she was a baby, Violet has loved making music, but it takes her until late childhood to find kindred spirits (they become her band mates). The writing has punch, but it's implausible that any kid nowadays would have trouble meeting other music fanatics. Meanwhile, Huliska-Beith's art has the perkiness and pizzazz of a good pop song. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Children marching to the beat of different drummers may take comfort from this tale of a born musician who grows up playing alone, but never doubts that she will find kindred spirits one day. Violet is making music before she even leaves the maternity ward, but as she goes from rattle banging to pretend guitar, she can't find anyone who will join in. Huliska-Beith chronicles her search, and ever-appreciative family audience, in lively, undulant multimedia collages that nicely capture both the rhythms of Violet's music and the joy she takes in creating them. That joy is intensified when, playing in the park one day, she hears drums, a sax, and a voice chiming in; suddenly she's in a band, with mates who, likewise, never gave up their search for others like them. That message adds an extra level of meaning generally missing from similar tales of young music-makers. (Picture book. 7-9) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
