By Dan Brown, Illustrated by Susan Batori
Rodale Kids, 2020
Picture Book, 44 Pages, Ages 4 – 12
Author Dan Brown, bestselling author best known for his book The Da Vinci Code, stepped out of his comfort zone and wrote his first picture book. I have to say his debut is nothing but incredible on so many levels. This book is educational, humorous, and uniquely entertaining.
Maestro Mouse has many musical friends and he gathers them all together for the wildest symphony of all. From the stingrays and hammerheads to the hippo, frogs in a bog, armadillos, cheetahs, and crazy rats playing the maracas, when you finally get to the fold-out page of all the animals playing together it’s no less than hilarious (the whale playing the cymbals is of particular note….pun absolutely intended).
Besides the rhyme on each page and priceless illustrations there are other unique qualities about this book. Dan Brown has included some wonderful wisdom from each animal such as the elephants:
“Nobody gets it right the first time. Just keep practicing: you’ll catch on.”
Mr. Brown also wrote 21 pieces of music that represent each animal featured in the book. And even more – he’s also included a QR code and app to download and when you scan the phone over the page it will instantly recognize which animal is represented and play the correct music for that page. This augmented reality is brilliant and brings the sound of a symphony directly into your home and those tunes are catchy enough that they stay with you while doing the dishes, yard work, or taking a walk!
For those older students who think this book may be too young for them, on each page is a hidden code – an anagram that needs to be solved to spell out the names of the musical instruments. It took this reviewer and two friends an hour to find the codes and decipher them! It was incredibly entertaining even for adults.
As the reviewer of this book I will qualify myself by saying that I have an extensive musical background and am incredibly critical about music books for kids that are pedantic, incorrect, and unattractive. To say I liked this book is an understatement and I’d recommend it to every music teacher in the country. Yes, it’s that terrific, inspiring, amazing, and entertaining. I’d give it 10 stars if the scale went that high!
Wild Symphony by Dan Brown gets 5+ stars from this reviewer. (Wild Symphony website)
If you’d like to hear Dan Brown explain why he wrote this book and music, and hear him read it follow this link to his YouTube video: