Music Book Review: Welcome to the Opera by Carolyn Sloan and illustrated by Kaly Quarles

I was very grateful to Book Publicity Services for sending me a copy of the new book by Carolyn Sloan, Welcome to the Opera. I reviewed her previous book Welcome to the Symphony a while ago (you can read this review by clicking the link below) and very much enjoyed it, so I was excited to get to read and review this new book.

Music Book Review: Welcome to the Symphony

LIGHTS DOWN. CURTAIN UP!

You have front-row seats to Mozart’s classic opera The Magic Flute! In this interactive book with 12 sound chips, you’ll hear the range of human voices – from coloratura soprano to the deep bass baritone. You’ll learn the difference between a quintet and a trio. The role of the orchestra. How it all comes together in a big finale. And if Tamino and Princess Pamina can stop the Queen of the Night’s evil plan!

You’ll also experience the special lesson that opera teaches: the profound joy of singing with other people. So next time you’re at the breakfast table and want more pancakes, sing your request! You might be surprised at your parents’ musical reply when they sing…YES!

Blurb from the back of the book Welcome to the Opera by Carolyn Sloan.

This book serves as an introduction to an art form that many people find difficult, intimidating or elitist for very young children. Using the story and music behind The Magic Flute by Mozart, Carolyn talks to young children both about the story behind this opera, and about what goes into making an opera – what are the names of the voice types for the singers in an opera etc. The Magic Flute is always a great first opera, for anyone really, but definitely for young children. It is to understand what is going on and the story lends itself to wonderful, bright, colourful and fun sets and costumes. It has familiar themes, like the struggle between good vs evil, a little bit of a love story, some fantastical, magical characters and music that they may well have already heard as it is so famous – and you almost certainly will have (the Queen of the Night aria is the one that immediately jumps into mind, and is featured in this book as one of the musical excerpts).

This is a sound book with very short excerpts of music to listen to which illustrate the things that Carolyn Sloan discusses in the book. And what young child does not like a book with buttons to press? Certainly my two adored sound books, no matter what the subject. They are great for promoting your child’s growing desire for independence because they can press the buttons themselves – and this helps them to feel that books are a fun and wonderful thing to look at and eventually read for themselves. Books like this are fantastic for teaching your children cause and effect as well – they press the button and as a result music plays.

My favourite things about this book are:-

• As discussed above, the fact that this is a sound book. It’s a book about music, and I always like when books about music, especially ones for very young children who are only just discovering music, include music itself.
• I love that while most of the audience for this show are human, there are just 3 dogs there who are our main protagonists.
• At some point, the dogs leave their box where they have been watching the opera, and find themselves firstly in the wings, and then on stage with the opera still going on around them, but no one in the audience bats an eyelid. Fantastic.
• The way the book is structured which makes it very easy to follow and also to bring out the different elements that Sloan is teaching your children about the opera. Different elements feature in different boxes, so information about the plot shows in a blue box, discussion of the things like the different types of voice you can hear in the opera, or different types of song that make up the opera etc appear in a golden frame etc.
• There is an on/off switch on the back of the book, so the battery will last longer.

For children’s books, especially young children’s books, illustrations are an incredibly important feature. Young children understand what is going on in a book as much from the pictures as they do from the text, and lets’s be honest, the pictures are often the thing that holds their attention – and stops them from pressing the buttons in a sound book so often that you start to lose the will to live and never want to hear that piece of music again…. Maybe that’s just my children… Here Kaly Quarles’ illustrations are charming, and cartoon-like. Perfect for the book’s intended audience. My favourite is the very fancy pink poodle, who I have decided is the other 2 dogs’ mum. She’s definitely in charge and most knowledgable, so clearly fits the role of mum. 😉

Things I like less

I am being incredibly nitpick-y here, but there are a couple of things that I feel are not as great as they could be:

• the musical excerpts are incredibly short. Personally, I would have liked a little more music to listen to as I feel that would have given a little more flavour for the opera.
• In order to make the music play, you have to press the buttons exactly where the numbers appear in each of the boxes. The music won’t play if you press down anywhere else on the image, and this could be frustrating for young children. It’s easy to fix. When I read a book with buttons that were a bit trickier to press I would put my finger or thumb on the relevant box and get my little one to press down on my finger until they were better able to control where their fingers pressed and could do it for themselves.

Who is this book for?

The back of the book suggests that this book is suitable for ages 4 and up, and I would broadly agree with this. I think I probably would have read this book with my children when they were 2 and 3 – basically as soon as they could press the buttons for themselves. This is a book for young readers, so I would suggest that children over 6 may be a little bored with the book. But my 6 year old still loves to press the buttons on the sound books we get to read and review, so make of that what you will.

At the time of writing, the book was available at all good book retailers including Amazon, where it is priced at £21.79 for the hardback edition. Amazon’s prices do change depending on demand, they can go up as well as down. At the moment I feel that this is a rather pricey book, and if I were buying it for myself I personally would wait until it goes down in price, but if I were looking for a nice Christmas gift for someone with young children, I would definitely consider this book as it is a lovely book that young children would enjoy and get a lot out of.

I should say here that this book was sent to me by Book Publicity Services so that I could write this review, but the views expressed here are my own views.

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