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Summary
Summary
From the legendary imagination of Maurice Sendak--creator of beloved classic Where the Wild Things Are --comes a classic tale of children cleverly overcoming a bully, retold by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner.
Brundibar is based on a 1938 Czech opera for children that was performed fifty-five times by the children of Terezin, the Nazi concentration camp. When Aninku and Pepicek discover one morning that their mother is sick, they rush to town for milk to make her better. Their attempt to earn money by singing is thwarted by a bullying, bellowing hurdy-gurdy grinder, Brundibar, who tyrannizes the town square and chases all other street musicians away. Befriended by three intelligent talking animals and three hundred helpful schoolkids, brother and sister sing for the money to buy the milk, defeat the bully, and triumphantly return home.
"An ambitious picture book that succeeds both as a simple children's story and as a compelling statement against tyranny." -- School Library Journal
Author Notes
Playwright Tony Kushner was born in New York City and raised in Louisiana.
In addition to his plays, Kushner teaches at New York University and has co-written an opera with Bobby McFerrin.
Kushner is best known for Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, a two-part seven-hour play that has won many awards (two Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, two Drama Desk Awards, the Evening Standard Award, the New York Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award). It was also selected one of the ten best plays of the 20th century by London's Royal National Theatre.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Kushner adapts this allegorical tale from a Czech opera created by Hans Kr sa and Adolf Hoffmeister in 1938 (see Children's Books, Oct. 27). A doctor wearing the Star of David on his jacket dispatches siblings Aninku and Pepicek to town to find milk for their sick mother. Sendak, in a mix of fantasy and reality elements reminiscent of his In the Night Kitchen (especially the cameo appearance of a baker), thrusts the siblings-and readers-into an exotic backdrop of stone buildings topped by spires and turrets, but with familiar details such as a horse grazing behind a picket fence and a field of flowers. The two try to earn money to buy the milk, but their voices are drowned out by the noise of the "bellowing Brundibar"; Brundibar's refrain ("Little children, how I hate 'em/ How I wish the bedbugs ate 'em") exemplifies Kushner's skill at tempering the potentially frightening with the comic. The dialogue and comments featured in balloons above the characters also inject an appealing spontanaeity and levity to the proceedings. A trio of talking animals and 300 children come to the duo's aid. Working in colored pencils, crayons and brush pens, Sendak conjures bustling Slavic city streets and effectively juxtaposes innocence and evil in the cherubic visages of the children and Brundibar's ominously hyperbolic facial features (the villain's manicured mustache calls to mind the reigning tyrant of the time). Despite a final threat from Brundibar, the story is ultimately one of hope, as the children and their allies band together to defeat the evil foe. The collaborators wisely allow readers to appreciate the story on one level, yet those familiar with the opera's origins (a note in the flap copy tells of Kr sa's death at Auschwitz) will find a haunting subtext here. All ages. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) Tonally reminiscent of We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (rev. 1/94), in which Sendak juxtaposed a madcap rescue mission with the plight of homeless children, this Kushner/Sendak collaboration re-creates the storyline of a Czech opera written by a Terezin concentration camp inmate and performed there by children whom the Nazis later murdered. Obviously, it will be read on at least two different levels. Adults will recognize the yellow stars sewn on Jewish characters' clothing, the brown-uniformed policeman, the eerie conflagration of a goose in midair (""Why goose why goose do you fly so / If I may inqui-i-ire? / If you're feeling cold we'll warm you / in our oven / fi-i-ire""), and the sign ""Arbeit Macht Frei""--not to mention children (or their personified souls) flying away on the wings of blackbirds above their wailing mothers, a brick bridge resembling a smoldering crematorium, and a stand of ominous van Gogh trees that double as smoke. Young listeners, of course, will simply want to know what happens next to the two little heroes, Pepicek and Aninku, who set out with an empty bucket and empty pockets to fetch milk for their ailing mother. Theirs is a dispiriting journey past uncaring grownups and grotesque vendors: an ice-cream man straight out of nightmares, an Oliver Hardy baker straight out of In the Night Kitchen, and a mad-eyed milk man with blood-red lips. By contrast, the organ grinder Brundibar seems like a modest little Hitler martinet, with his glassy blue eyes, spidery mustache, and Iron-Cross-decorated military attire (his macabre monkey wears a Prussian helmet). However, an enraged Brundibar manages to keep the children from earning milk money by bullying them out of the square until they rally with sympathetic help from a cat, dog, and crowd of three hundred children. Pepicek and Aninku are last seen perched with their recovering mother, a crucifix above her bed and their Jewish doctor dancing from the room (""mazel tov""). Kushner's text is bursting with sound effects, including libretto verse and surprise narrative rhyming. The morals of the story are deeply ironic, given the Holocaust victims who sang them: ""People are happy helping / It's never hard to find help / It is only hard to know that it's time to ask""; ""The wicked never win! / We have our victory yet! /... Our friends make us strong! / And thus we end our song."" Sendak's crayon, colored pencil, and brush pen illustrations feature rosy tones emphasized by bursts of crimson and yellow, or contrasted with intense blacks, browns, blues, and greens. Characters in nonstop action fill both the framed and unframed pages, but there's plenty of vivid white space to absorb them. The portraiture, even in crowd scenes, is distinctive, and viewers familiar with the artist's work will recognize pieces of Sendakian iconography and stagecraft throughout. Yet this is a world away from the lyrical simplicity of Sendak's classic trilogy, where subtexts were more subtly incorporated to avoid interference with the direct address of children's experience. Perhaps there is an audience gap between the double meanings of the book. An ominous finale is handwritten across the concentration camp playbill: ""they believe they've won the fight, / they believe I'm gone--not quite! / nothing ever works out neatly-- / Bullies don't give up completely. / one departs, the next appears, / and we shall meet again, my dears!"" Alas, adults know that there have been sequels to the Holocaust, but children may be puzzled by the tonal switch of such an inauspicious promise following the triumphant narrative conclusion. On the other hand, one can never underestimate the power of children's perceptions or the mysterious process by which they connect with an intensely crafted work of art. At whatever level it's absorbed, this publishing event emanates a unique magnetic quality. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Gr. 1-4, with help from an adult. Based on a Czech opera (originally performed at a concentration camp) restaged by Sendak andushner, this story, filled with familiar folktale motifs, takes Pepecik and his sister, Anniku, into a dark, complex adult world where their simple hope to help their ill mother is bent at every turn. When the doctor tells the siblings their mother must have fresh milk, they hurry into town with their pails. But milk costs money. Noticing adults flinging coins at Brundibar the organ grinder, the children try singing, but they can't be heard over Brundibar's bellowing. Then the kids transmogrify into bears, prompting a song of hatred from Brundibar. The children return to themselves, crushed that there's to be no milk. But wait. Three hundred children march, holding banners with slogans such as Bullies must be defied. Their communal song is heard, to the fury of Brundibar, who tries to steal their coins, before being driven out of town. The children buy the milk, Mommy revives, and the story ends happily. Or does it? A postcard from Brundibar warns that bullies always return. There is so much for children to cope with here that it's difficult to predict their reactions. Unlike an opera, where music cues responses, this leaves kids on their own to sort out turbulent emotions and to absorb images such as crows carrying off children andewish characters wearing yellow stars. Vigorous and unsettling (as are some of the included song lyrics), the artwork demands repeated looks, with Sendak recalling some familiar characters, such as the chef from In the Nightitchen, and in kaleidoscopic fashion presenting them in an entirely new design. This is not for casual reading, but children of a variety of ages can be introduced to the story, which, with an adult's help, can be used for edification and discussion. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2003 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
K Up-A picture book based on a 1938 Czech opera, originally performed by the children of Terezin. A brother and sister try to get milk for their sick mother. They sing for coins in the town square, but Brundibar the organ grinder drowns out their words with his "teeth-chattery bone-rattley horrible song." Pepicek and Aninku then join voices with 300 other children and earn enough coins to fill their "soon-to-be-milkbucket." The playful language, with occasional rhyme and alliteration, is a perfect match for Sendak's spirited young heroes. The illustrations reflect varied undertones of a powerful story that works on different levels, including many references to the Holocaust. Scenes in the town show rich adults ignoring the desperate siblings, while other children also suffer from hunger. A banner matches a sign that covered the gates of Auschwitz, and several townsfolk wear yellow Stars of David. Brundibar vaguely resembles Hitler, particularly in one scene where he appears, huge and purple faced, with a clenched fist. A wordless spread showing grieving parents is poignant in itself, but tragic within the Holocaust context. Most kids won't get the literal references, but will respond directly to the images of the ominous, yet hopeful world depicted. In the end everyone sings triumphantly that "the wicked never win" and "our friends make us strong," but a final scribbled message from Brundibar promises that he'll be back. This is an ambitious picture book that succeeds both as a simple children's story and as a compelling statement against tyranny.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
This brilliant and disturbing rendition of an old Czech opera honors history in a stunning piece of art. A small brother and sister need money to buy milk for their sick mother, but singing in the town square is impossible because bully Brundibar claims the territory. Adults throwing money at Brundibar's "bellowing" can't hear Pepicek and Aninku at all; when the children challenge him by turning briefly into bears, the masses declare "Call the cop!" and "No bears on the square! It's the law!" Brundibar's alarming song gets louder and scarier until Pepicek and Aninku run away. They hide in a gloomy alley (reminiscent of We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy) until 300 children arrive and help them triumph over evil Brundibar. The original opera, written in 1938, was performed by children in Terezin who were awaiting transport to Nazi death camps. Kushner's stellar rhythmic text sticks to the opera's storyline, while Sendak's incredible illustrations sprinkle in horrifying historical details as well as references to earlier Sendak masterworks. Though there's far more here than a simple metaphor, the occasional yellow stars on clothing and an "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign (recalling the entrance to Auschwitz) make the Holocaust unavoidably present for readers who recognize such symbols. Other readers will find comfort in the sunny beginning and end, but will still see darkness, danger, and Brundibar's threat to return. Sendak and Kushner complement each other perfectly as they merge merriness with tragedy and political commentary. A heartbreaking, hopeful masterpiece with powerful implications for contemporary readers. (Picture book. 8+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
