Thursday, November 16, 2017

88 Instruments

88 Instruments. Chris Barton. Illustrated by Louis Thomas. 2016. 32 pages. [Source: Library]

First sentence: 88! That's how many pounding, surrounding, astounding-mound-of-sounding instruments are in this shop. But...I can take lessons on only one. Not 75, or 64, or 33, or 12. "One," says Dad. "For now," says Mom. "Your pick!" says Dad. "Within reason," says Mom. How am I supposed to pick just one? Do I pick the squeeziest? The wheeziest?

Premise/plot: The narrator of 88 Instruments is having a tough time deciding on ONE instrument from the music shop. What instrument should he learn to play first? One thing is for certain, he is going to look at ALL of his options and not just pick the first thing he sees.

My thoughts: I loved this one. I loved the descriptive language. I loved the dialogue. It worked really well, in my opinion. I loved the passion and enthusiasm. Which technically I suppose you'd call the narrative voice. I thought Barton did great at capturing that magic moment.
plink! It's so clear. PLUNK. So right. PLUNNNNNNNNK! So right for me. I'm going to learn the plinkiest...the plunkiest...and, here to there, the spunkiest--the PIANO!
The illustrations are nearly (but not quite) as expressive as the text.

Text: 5 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 8 out of 10



© 2017 Becky Laney of Young Readers

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