The 39 Apartments of Ludwig Van Beethoven
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 JournalCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.