The Red Violin Books

It is all about a girl named Veronica, who plays the violin. People cry because she plays so nice. She takes a trip to the jungle. She travels with some fearless hunters. When the animals appeared the hunters ran away. Veronica played beautiful music and the animals partied. But then a deaf lion came and he did not know about the music and he ate Veronica. This is why the world is not full of happy dancing people!! I love this book!

I teach Grade One and my class love this book. It is a fun story with lots of Mr. Mckee's colourful, and rather surrealist, illustrations. This story has a good balance of comedy, tragedy and a sense of the ridiculous. Anyone who has read and enjoyed Not Now, Bernard will love this one.

I bought this book because it made me laugh out loud in the shop when I got to the ending. "Mothers are always right!"... Veronica plays violin beautifully, but terribly sadly... in every picture there are tears tears tears. One day Veronica who is now a star decides to get away from it all and go for a trip to the jungle... incredibly enough she plays music for vicious beasts but it is HAPPY music!! Yes, she will go back and play differently and the streets will be full of happy dancing people, rather than rivers of tears... but then.... Well, you will have to read it yourself for the explanation of why the streets are not full of happy dancing people. So sad you'll laugh!

The watercolor illustrations are great, with even the birds crying. The layouts are charming, and you can spend an enjoyable half hour searching out the tiny lion motifs hidden on the pages.

A highly recommended book with a great sense of humour, foreshadowing, suspense, character development and a climax ending... what more can you ask of a picture book?!

The making of music is a benefit for both the musician and the audience. But before that can happen, aspiring musicians must learn the fundamentals of their instruments and gain a degree of expertise in their use. The fiddle has been a popular instrument through American frontier history and has the additional benefit of players being able to learn its use without formal training if they have a modicum of basic instruction. In "Big Fun Easy Fiddle Book", author and veteran music educator Larry McCabe draws upon his more than 30 years of experience and expertise to create a thoroughly 'user friendly' beginner's instruction manual that will enable anyone to learn how to paly traditional fiddle styles. Enhanced with an accompany CD and fully illustrated, the "Big Fun Easy Fiddle Book" includes notes and tablature. Beginners would also be able to 'play by ear' using the tablature (a number system) with each tune also being scored in standard notation for note readers. Also included is a helpful guide to fundamental, a varied selection of popular tunes, as well as chord symbols for accompaniment. The CD features all of the tunes in the book, played at a moderate speed with guitar accompaniment, and are a perfect way to hone and practice newly acquired skills. "Big Fun Easy Fiddle Book" is an ideal do-it-yourself at home instructional guide, and would make a welcome addition to school and community library Music Instruction reference collections.