ROAR-Chestra: A Wild Story of Musical Words

 I'll attempt to be as concise, graceful, and compelling in celebrating this new picture book as the author and illustrator were in creating it!

KIDS CAN PRESS, 2021

ROARchestra: A WILD STORY OF MUSICAL WORDS is written by Robert Heidbreder and illustrated by Dusan Petricic. Take a moment before reading on to examine this remarkable cover and venture a guess about what awaits your attention within these remarkable covers.

ROARchestra is a masterpiece that strikes exactly the right balance of text, illustration, and page design to produce humor, information, poetic joy, and visual delight. 

Heidbreder, I discovered, is a widely celebrated Canadian poet, especially for children, but this was my first encounter with his work. It won't be my last. The seemingly simple intention is sharing the seven most familiar musical performance directives, drawn from Italian:

ALLEGRO  (lively)

ADAGIO  (slowly)

GLISSANDO  (gliding)

STACCATO  (short, crisp)

DOLCE  (sweetly)

FORTISSIMO   (loudly)

PIANISSIMO   (quietly)

The (genius) premise is that the maestro/maestra has gathered an orchestra of bow-tied animals   who will perform/demonstrate each directive using their natural voices and habits. Again, examine that brilliant cover!  A pattern unfolds across fifteen double spreads, as follows: The conductor is alone on a white double spread, a single directive from the above list appears on a musical staff, and that baton sweeps demonstratively to suggest the intent of the word.The page turn is "performed" by the "section of the ROARchestra" (my quotes) suited to that interprestation with a single line of lyrical descriptive text- as in 

"Quickly, swiftly-- race, run fly!" (text quotes). 

Go ahead, imagine that. Then get this book and go wild! 

Kids will. 

I did.

I'm certain you will, too.

The endpapers and cover suggest the full-throated commitment of the illustrator to celebrate the joyful exuberance of this premise, of the 29-total word text, and of the imagined music that could accompany these talented animals of air, land, and sky.

Do yourself a favor and read it. Then think of everyone you know who could find even more layers of musical love, laughter, and inspiration in this remarkable book. Music teacher? Music student? Class or family planning for a visit to an orchestra, now that things are opening up again? I can guarantee that anyone who explores this book will never again view the back of a conductor and not recognize their remarkable skill and talent to guide and reveal the sections of the orchestra, the masterful intent of compositions, and the life-force of music itself.