Inside Out: A Musical Adventure - Hardcover

Grade 4-6-- Swados' "musical adventure" is neither musical nor much of an adventure. Twins Gemma and George (Nan and Bert Bobbsey with red hair) never practice for their weekly lessons with Mr. VagenWorgenVurst, and on this occasion their playing is so dreadful that Mr. V's allergy to poor music causes him to explode. The resultant shock waves blow Gemma and George into a surreal world inside the musical instruments that fill the teacher's strange dwelling. They find the fantasy land in danger from the wicked Queen of Flat Notes and Duke of Sharps (not to mention their obnoxious children), who are bent on destroying all music. The children are designated to save the day, supposedly learning the importance of playing music correctly along the way. In places the text is written to look like poetry, but it has no rhythmic life, frequently does not scan at all, and is as banal and repetitious as the rest of the text. Consistency isn't a prime element either. Mr. V. is first described as "formidable," then a half page later is "timid." Characterization is handled by means of parenthetical comments. Gemma says something sternly ("She was the less patient of the twins") or decides to go speak to someone ("She was the more sociable of the two, though George was very loyal.") And so it goes. Those who like their fantasy laced with lunacy should stick with Daniel Pinkwater. This effort is flat from start to finish. --Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A freestyle fantasy that reaches giddy heights of invention, this first book by composer Swados follows nine-year-old twins Gemma and George from a fairly humdrum music lesson with Mr. Phineas VagenWorgenVurststet to an odyssey through the insides of timpani, oboes, cymbals and other orchestral instruments, all of which are inhabited by legions of creatures. Those encountered along the way range "from fireflies to women who resembled chemistry professors, from fat snails to . . . strange-shaped banging bones." In this musical limbo, the Queen of Flat Notes and the Duke of Sharps conspire to ruin music for everyone. Patrolling the air in a "space lobster" vehicle, they "stomped on poor squealing notes," and Gemma and George try to forestall their rude sabotages. Swados's verbal play demands to be read aloud, and her visual sense--best revealed in her words, not her pictures--is as rollicking as Walt Disney's. But her feat of educational escapism could take a tip from Lewis Carroll: the book lacks an organizing, allegorical intelligence. Ages 8-12.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.