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Summary
Summary
How hard is it to move 5 legless pianos 39 times?
Beethoven owned five legless pianos and composed great works on the floor. His first apartment was in the center of Vienna's theater district... but he forgot to pay rent, so he had to move. (And it's very hard to move a piano. Even harder to move five). Beethoven's next apartment was in a dangerous part of town... so he moved, and the pianos followed on a series of pulleys. Then came an apartment with a view of the Danube (but he made too much noise and the neighbors complained), followed by an attic apartment (where he made even MORE of a rukus), and so Beethoven moved again and again. Each time, pianos were bought, left behind, transported on pulleys, slides, and by movers, all so that gifted Beethoven could compose great works of music for the world.
Author Notes
Children's author and illustrator Jonah Winter was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1962. He has created many popular books, including works about baseball and biographies of famous individuals including Frida Kahlo, Roberto Clemente, and Barack Obama.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-This offbeat picture book blends facts with bits of quirky, occasionally amusing speculation. Beginning with the composer's birth in 1770 (the wild-haired infant cries to the tempo of his famed Fifth Symphony-"Wah Wah Wah Wah"), Winter reveals that the adult Beethoven lived in 39 different apartments in and around Vienna. If readers wonder why he relocated so often, the tongue-in-cheek text cites such reasons as forgetting to pay rent, the "hideous stinky" smell from a nearby cheese shop, and noise complaints from other residents. Beethoven brings his "five legless pianos" to each new abode, a constant headache for his movers, who always find the most roundabout and preposterously difficult way of transporting the instruments from place to place. Silly examples of "evidence" (e.g., we know that Beethoven played his pianos loudly because of the "Hundreds of cotton balls with traces of dried earwax" found in neighbors' homes) are mixed with nuggets of truth (the maestro's increasing deafness). The pen-and-ink and watercolor cartoon illustrations depict the frazzled-looking composer and play up the text's humor. Unfortunately, the joke begins to wear thin, and the abrupt, anticlimactic conclusion may disappoint readers who manage to stick with the book until the end. There is not much here to capture the interest of those unfamiliar with Beethoven's life and work. While young classical music buffs might enjoy this banal tale, it won't have much to say to most children.-Joy Fleishhacker, School Library Journal (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
While the pseudo-scholarly tone of this amusing "mockumentary" will undoubtedly float over the heads of some, older readers will enjoy its tongue-in-cheek lampoon of portentous documentaries. Beginning with the fact that Beethoven (1770-1827) "owned five legless pianos and composed great works on the floor," the narrative then points out that he lived in 39 different apartments-"(See book title.)" Winter (Roberto Clemente) and Blitt (Once Upon a Time, the End: Asleep in 60 Seconds) combine comic brio with audacious fabrication to suggest how difficult it was for the poor fellow to move his quintet of pianos from one place to another. They suggest, for instance, that a nearly deaf Beethoven's playing was "bangingly loud!" and support the statement by claiming historians have found "hundreds of cotton balls with traces of dried earwax" in his neighbors' apartments. Blitt visually elaborates on each outlandish, allegedly well-researched detail. Illustrating a piano wheeled through an obliging neighbor's apartment, the artist pictures the movers carrying the piano across a dining room table midfeast. The unseen narrator's droll tone sends up the hushed, dramatic voice of an announcer: "Why did Ludwig move after only eight and a half days? Was it, as his diary suggests, because of the `hideous stinky cheese smell' that filled his apartment? We do not know." A witty spoof of a familiar genre, this irreverent account of a brilliant musician is full of satiric pleasures (and ends with an author's note that sorts fact from fiction). Ages 4-9. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Those appreciative of Beethoven's work can now commiserate with the difficulties of owning five legless pianos and having to move in and out of 39 apartments all because of rude neighbors who couldn't tell a good note from a toneless bang. From this proven fact, Winter has crafted an entertaining tale that is less biography than fascinating sidebar. Children with no knowledge of Beethoven will laugh at the increasingly elaborate and far-fetched schemes to move his pianos, while perhaps gaining a rudimentary knowledge of physics. There's also a tongue-in-cheek observance of the need to separate fact from fiction while examining the historical record. Do those water stains really "reveal that he then dumped another bowl of water on his head?" Blitt's watercolors deftly capture Beethoven-era Vienna and his increasing frenzy brought on by deafness. Through it all, Beethoven looms larger than life, as well he should. A previously missing manuscript provides elegant endpapers. A handsome and engaging tale. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Gr. 3-5. Winter first states the basic facts: Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Germany, owned five legless pianos, and moved 39 times. From there, things get fuzzier about the life of the wild musical genius. Why did he move? Did his tormented neighbors drive him out because of the noise? Did they really write him a note telling him to Shut . . . up ? It's not clear who the audience is for this mock picture-book biography; Winter's wry send-up of scholars' pretentious attempts to document the facts about the situation is strictly for adults. But Blitt, who illustrated Geoffrey Kloske's Once Upon a Time, the End (2005), uses his line-and-watercolor cartoons to extend the great parody of the tormented-genius stereotype, and the picture-book crowd will surely relish the humor of the famous, noisy neighbor and the furniture movers schlepping all those pianos. A good companion to Barbara Nichol's Beethoven Lives Upstairs (1994). --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2006 Booklist
