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The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven
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About The 39 Apartments Of Ludwig Van Beethoven
Product Description How hard is it to move 5 legless pianos 39 times? Beethoven owned five legless pianos and composed great works on the floor. His first apartment was in the center of Vienna's theater district... but he forgot to pay rent, so he had to move. (And it's very hard to move a piano. Even harder to move five). Beethoven's next apartment was in a dangerous part of town... so he moved, and the pianos followed on a series of pulleys. Then came an apartment with a view of the Danube (but he made too much noise and the neighbors complained), followed by an attic apartment (where he made even MORE of a rukus), and so Beethoven moved again and again. Each time, pianos were bought, left behind, transported on pulleys, slides, and by movers, all so that gifted Beethoven could compose great works of music for the world. From School Library Journal Grade 2-5–This offbeat picture book blends facts with bits of quirky, occasionally amusing speculation. Beginning with the composer's birth in 1770 (the wild-haired infant cries to the tempo of his famed Fifth Symphony–Wah Wah Wah Wah), Winter reveals that the adult Beethoven lived in 39 different apartments in and around Vienna. If readers wonder why he relocated so often, the tongue-in-cheek text cites such reasons as forgetting to pay rent, the hideous stinky smell from a nearby cheese shop, and noise complaints from other residents. Beethoven brings his five legless pianos to each new abode, a constant headache for his movers, who always find the most roundabout and preposterously difficult way of transporting the instruments from place to place. Silly examples of evidence (e.g., we know that Beethoven played his pianos loudly because of the Hundreds of cotton balls with traces of dried earwax found in neighbors' homes) are mixed with nuggets of truth (the maestro's increasing deafness). The pen-and-ink and watercolor cartoon illustrations depict the frazzled-looking composer and play up the text's humor. Unfortunately, the joke begins to wear thin, and the abrupt, anticlimactic conclusion may disappoint readers who manage to stick with the book until the end. There is not much here to capture the interest of those unfamiliar with Beethoven's life and work. While young classical music buffs might enjoy this banal tale, it won't have much to say to most children. –Joy Fleishhacker,School Library Journal Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Gr. 3-5. Winter first states the basic facts: Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Germany, owned five legless pianos, and moved 39 times. From there, "things get fuzzier" about the life of the wild musical genius. Why did he move? Did his tormented neighbors drive him out because of the noise? Did they really write him a note telling him to "Shut . . . up"? It's not clear who the audience is for this mock picture-book biography; Winter's wry send-up of scholars' pretentious attempts to document the "facts" about the situation is strictly for adults. But Blitt, who illustrated Geoffrey Kloske's Once Upon a Time, the End (2005), uses his line-and-watercolor cartoons to extend the great parody of the tormented-genius stereotype, and the picture-book crowd will surely relish the humor of the famous, noisy neighbor and the furniture movers schlepping all those pianos. A good companion to Barbara Nichol's Beethoven Lives Upstairs (1994). Hazel Rochman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Review Publishers Weekly starred review About the Author Jonah Winter is the author of Diego, a biography of Diego Rivera, Frida, about artist Frida Kahlo, a Parents' Choice Gold Medal winner, and Roberto Clemente: The Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the story of one of the most admired baseball players of all time. He is also the author of two other books about baseball: Fair Ball!: 14 Great Stars from Baseball's Negro Leagues and Beisbol!: Latino Baseb
