FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Legendary children's author Maurice Sendak and Tony Award winner Tony Kushner team up for a remarkable, thought-provoking retelling of a classic Czech opera with inspiring historical overtones -- the opera was performed 55 times by children in the Nazi concentration camp of Terezin. Along with Sendak's rich illustrations that hearken back to his classic style, Kushner recounts the story of Aninku and Pepicek, who go to town in search of milk for their sick mother. Unfortunately, the two children can't pay for the milk, but when they spot a singing Brundibar -- an organ grinder -- garnering lots of attention and raking in coins, they decide to try their own performance. The trouble is, no one can hear them, "all because of bellowing Brundibar." Forced into an alley after a frightening confrontation with the bullying organ grinder, they meet up with three animals who end up recruiting 300 children to help drive Brundibar away. Beginning with a bright atmosphere that soon turns dark and foreboding, Kushner and Sendak's tale is a solid, intense tour de force that weaves together Jewish history, hope, and the struggle between good and evil. (The last word is a note from Brundibar: "Bullies don't give up completely. One departs, the next appears, and we shall meet again, my dears!"). Kushner's language is bold and fluent, while Sendak never lets readers forget the broader significance of this tale, peppering the pages with Stars of David; signs and newspapers in Czech, German, and Hebrew; and Brundibar's companion monkey, who wears a German spiked helmet. A soul-stirring book that will touch readers of many generations on many levels. Matt Warner

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When Aninku and Pepicek discover one morning that their mother is sick, they rush to town for milk to make her better. Their attempt to earn money by singing is thwarted by a bullying, bellowing hurdy-gurdy grinder, Brundibar, who tyrannizes the town square and chases all other street musicians away. Befriended by three intelligent talking animals and three hundred helpful schoolkids, brother and sister sing for the money buy the milk, defeat the bully, and triumphantly return home. Brundibar is based on a Czech opera for children that was performed fifty-five times by the children of Terezin, the Nazi concentration camp.

About the Author and Illustrator

Tony Kushner's plays include "A Bright Room Called Day"; "The Illusion"; "Angels In America, Parts One and Two"; "Slavs!"; "Hydrotaphia"; "Homebody/Kabul"; and adaptations of Goethe's "Stella", Brecht's "The Good Person of Setzuan", and Ansky's "The Dybbuk". His work has been produced at theatres around the United States and in over thirty countries around the world. He is the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1993 and 1994 Tony Awards for Best Play, among other awards.

Maurice Sendak received the 1964 Caldecott Medal for "Where the Wild Things Are." In 1970 he received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration, in 1983 he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association, and in 1996 he received a National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contribution to the arts in America. In March 2003, Sendak received the first Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an annual international prize for children's literature established by the Swedish government.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Just when one might have thought that the most celebrated living picture-book artist could retire with his laurels, along comes Maurice Sendak's collaboration with Tony Kushner, Brundibar, a capering picture book crammed with melodramatic menace and comedy both low and grand.

In a career that spans 50 years and counting, as Sendak's does, there are bound to be lesser works. Brundibar is not lesser than anything. — Gregory Maguire

Washington Post Book World

This tale, based on a 1938 Czech opera performed by children in the Nazi concentration camp at Terezin, near Prague, is retold by playwright Tony Kushner, but it is pure Sendak just the same: multi-layered, quirky and more than a little didactic. For once, though, the moral is crystal clear: Bullies and tyrants are always with us, but they can be temporarily routed.

....On one level just a jaunty tale of a small-town bully's comeuppance, on another level Brundibar appears to be a parable of the Holocaust, the ultimate image of murderous oppression. Sendak's illustrations, among the best he has ever done, navigate between the two.

....Children won't grasp most of these symbols unaided, but they will sense the dark undercurrent in a general way -- and the chill rising off the final page, with its postcard from the vanquished Brundibar, promising to return, for "nothing ever works out neatly -- Bullies don't give up completely. One departs, the next appears." Luckily, we sense that Sendak's feisty urchins, in their rainbow-colored rags, will be ready for him. — Elizabeth Ward

Publishers Weekly

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Kushner adapts this allegorical tale from a Czech opera created by Hans Kr sa and Adolf Hoffmeister in 1938 (see Children's Books, Oct. 27). A doctor wearing the Star of David on his jacket dispatches siblings Aninku and Pepicek to town to find milk for their sick mother. Sendak, in a mix of fantasy and reality elements reminiscent of his In the Night Kitchen (especially the cameo appearance of a baker), thrusts the siblings-and readers-into an exotic backdrop of stone buildings topped by spires and turrets, but with familiar details such as a horse grazing behind a picket fence and a field of flowers. The two try to earn money to buy the milk, but their voices are drowned out by the noise of the "bellowing Brundibar"; Brundibar's refrain ("Little children, how I hate 'em/ How I wish the bedbugs ate 'em") exemplifies Kushner's skill at tempering the potentially frightening with the comic. The dialogue and comments featured in balloons above the characters also inject an appealing spontanaeity and levity to the proceedings. A trio of talking animals and 300 children come to the duo's aid. Working in colored pencils, crayons and brush pens, Sendak conjures bustling Slavic city streets and effectively juxtaposes innocence and evil in the cherubic visages of the children and Brundibar's ominously hyperbolic facial features (the villain's manicured mustache calls to mind the reigning tyrant of the time). Despite a final threat from Brundibar, the story is ultimately one of hope, as the children and their allies band together to defeat the evil foe. The collaborators wisely allow readers to appreciate the story on one level, yet those familiar with the opera's origins (a note in the flap copy tells of Kr sa's death at Auschwitz) will find a haunting subtext here. All ages. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

Aninku and Pepicek rush to town because the doctor says that their sick mother must have milk. There they try to sing to earn money to buy it. But a nasty organ grinder thwarts their attempts. Helped by animals and a troupe of children, they sing until the money accumulated in their bucket buys the milk to make their mother well. The triumphant chorus of "the wicked never win" is particularly poignant because this story is based on a Czech opera performed by the children at the Terezin concentration camp; the text includes what must be the words to arias from that opera. And after the happy ending comes a chilling warning from the wicked Brundibar, "I'll be back." Sendak creates many delightful new characters, but also includes familiar faces from previous creations, all in his recognizable style. The full color illustrations appear as stage sets, with some text in speech balloons and a running commentary in upper case letters. The scenes are crowded with groups of townspeople and details of place (including yellow stars and skull caps on some of the crowd); they are of joy, of despair, of comic melodrama, rich with visual challenges. Do not miss the end-papers and the contrasting jacket and cover. 2003, Michael Di Capua Books/Hyperion Books for Children, Ages 4 up.

VOYA - Sarah K. Herz, Guest Reviewer