The Enchanted Symphony: A Picture Book

by Julie Andrews, Emma Walton Hamilton, Elly MacKay (Illustrator)

Overview

The Enchanted Symphony is an inspiring picture book about the power of art, nature, and community from New York Times bestselling mother–daughter duo beloved Academy Award-winner Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton.

When a lively village is beset by a mysterious fog, the town turns dull and silent; melancholy neighbors stop visiting each other and even going outside. Until one day, when a boy’s simple melody strikes a chord, reminding everyone of what matters most—even in the darkest of times.

Beautifully and colorfully illustrated by Elly MacKay, The Enchanted Symphony is a powerful, hopeful fairy tale celebrating life’s simple pleasures that bring us together.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419763199
Publisher:	Abrams Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 11.10(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Julie Andrews has been a cherished star of stage, screen, and TV for more than half a century. Her many beloved roles include characters in Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, The Princess Diaries, and recently, the voice of Lady Whistledown on Bridgerton. Not only a Golden Globe, Emmy, and Oscar winner, Andrews is also a bestselling author. She has dedicated her life to important causes, such as Operation USA, an international relief organization, and received her honors as a Dame of the British Empire by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on New Year’s Eve 1999.
Emma Walton Hamilton is an award-winning writer, producer, and arts educator. She has coauthored more than 30 children’s books with her mother, Julie Andrews, eight of which have been on the New York Times bestseller list. She was nominated for two Emmys for the children’s TV show Julie’s Greenroom, and she is a Grammy Award–winning voice-over artist for audiobooks. She is also a faculty member for Stony Brook University, where she serves as director of the Children’s Lit Fellows program and the annual Southampton Children’s Literature Conference.
Elly MacKay is an internationally recognized paper artist and children’s book creator. She is the illustrator of the picture book Too Early and author-illustrator of Red Sky at Night, If You Hold a Seed, and Butterfly Park, among others. The distinctive three-dimensional quality in her works is made by setting up layers of painted paper in a miniature theater. She lights the scene and photographs it to create her unique illustrations. MacKay lives in Owen Sound, Ontario, with her family.

Editorial Reviews

10/16/2023

Music drives away a depressive fog in this inventively illustrated fable. After the creative residents of an idyllic village lose touch with “their own simple pleasures,” a purple mist covers the town, keeping everyone indoors. Young Piccolino and his orchestra maestro father nevertheless clean the opera house each week, and Piccolino soon discovers that playing music perks up the lobby palms. This leads the brown-skinned father and son to devise a plan to brighten the village’s sickly plants—and, by extension, help cure the town’s malaise. Though the plot feels a bit hazy at times, Andrews and Hamilton employ a gentle fairy tale lilt to explore art’s effect on all kinds of life. McKay’s dynamic illustrations, which portray individuals of varying skin tones, make up an engaging narrative of their own, layering lighted cut-outs before photographing to create deep shadows and a glowing effect. An author’s note describes the story’s inspiration in a Barcelona string quartet’s performance during Covid lockdowns for a concert hall filled with plants. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Actor Andrews and her daughter Walton Hamilton pay tribute to the power of music. MacKay places her gracefully posed, diverse figures in luminously hued scenes of narrow streets and neatly kept buildings perched on a steep hill and threaded with musical staves. Sweet art.—Kirkus

"Music drives away a depressive fog in this inventively illustrated fable."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2023-07-13
Actor Andrews and her daughter Walton Hamilton pay tribute to the power of music.

The inhabitants of a small village are happy with “simple pleasures” until they commercialize to attract tourists…whereupon a dismal purple mist creeps in and thickens to the point that people stop visiting or even going outside. Then one day little Piccolino, who is helping his father dust the deserted opera house, plinks out a tune on the piano…and notices that the palms in the lobby look fresher. The brown-skinned pair proceed to gather wilting houseplants from all over town, park them in the auditorium seats, and call the orchestra members in for a concert. The plants flourish, the fog lifts, and throngs of villagers are drawn out into the streets by the music to dance and sing. Everyone realizes that “if they remained faithful to all that matters most, nothing could darken their days again.” In a closing note the authors state that they were inspired by an actual concert played in Barcelona in 2020 to an “audience” of plants—a piece of performance art more likely to stimulate discussion than this trite, sugary mess. The illustrations are one bright spot: MacKay places her gracefully posed, diverse figures in luminously hued scenes of narrow streets and neatly kept buildings perched on a steep hill and threaded with musical staves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Sweet art, cloying storyline. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews