The Fabulous Song [Paperback]

Mr. Christie Book Award Winner

Honor Title, Storytelling World Awards

When Sarah Pipkin's brother was born, everyone decided he would be musical. They even named him Frederic, as in Frederic Chopin. As Frederic grew, he tried, without success, to play every instrument.

Then, on his seventh birthday, with the Pipkins gathered around, the fabulous song finally happened.

In an appealing Canadian import, Gillmor takes an offbeat approach to the dreaded subject of music lessons. . . The illustrations, with their exaggerated figures, limpid watercolors, and nervous line, are full of great touches.

-- Kirkus

Gilmour makes some excellent dry comedy out of his straightforward language. . . Marie-Louise Gay's illustrations suit the comic, improvisational tone and theme of the story. She uses scribbly lines and loose washes of bright colour -- and streams of musical notation, grim and annoying or bright and loopy as fits the mood, that fly out of the double-spread pages like banners of sound.

Recommended.

-- CM Magazine