I really enjoyed this picture book. It starts off with a little boy who hates practicing the piano, and when ever he stops his mother scolds him to keep playing. I liked how when he practices the worlds “cling, clang, clong” are written big and bolded in the illustration, which makes it seem as if he’s banging around on the keys and not actually playing anything nice because he does not want to practice. The Mom explains why she didn’t become a grand pianist, saying “because after you were born, I didn’t have time to practice.” This makes the boy feel bad so he plays for his mom. I also liked the page where the illustrations coincided with everything the boy would rather be than a grand pianist, with pictures of him becoming things like “a grand firefighter, a grand flying acrobat, a grand magician, a grand artist…”
In the middle of the story, the boy tells his grandfather (his mother’s father) that his mom wants him to be a grand pianist because she did not become one, and the grandfather proceeds to take out a box of all old pictures of her to show the mother doing all sorts of things when she was younger. There are pictures of her riding a bike, dressed as a pirate, at karate class, and then one of her sitting at the piano frowning. As it turns out, the mother did not like playing the piano either, and the grandpa explains how much she hated practicing when she was the boys’ age. The language used here: “Suddenly mom’s face turned red, as if a teacher were asking her why her homework wasn’t done” explains a feeling that kids can relate to, so I thought the author used a fun and interesting tone throughout. The Illustrations also struck me as interesting, as they include pieces of sheet music in them, which I thought was creative and fun to look at.
At the end of the book, the boys’ grandfather takes him to pick out a new instrument, and he chooses the tuba. I thought it was clever that author says in the beginning of the book that the boy starts practicing at 3:00 and at 3:13 stops and his mom yells at him to practice at 3:14, yet at the end of the book she says at 3:13 (when he practices the tuba) “don’t you want to take a break? Can I make you a snack?” because she obviously doesn’t want to hear him playing so loudly. I think the message with this story is that it’s okay to not like the same things that your parents or friends do, and that it’s good to be unique. ( )

This is a charming book that has the potential of being both a classroom library favorite and a good mentor text to be used with writing. I can see it being used for personal narratives specifically family stories.In the book, a young boy is unhappy that he has to play the piano, but doesn't want to disappoint his mother who 'gave up her dreams of being a grand pianist' to raise him. The boy learns the mother actually disliked the piano from his grandfather. ( )

http://www.wilkinsfarago.com.au ( )