Symphony City, by Amy Martin

Symphony City, to me, is more about the artwork than the story. This book was penned and illustrated by artist Amy Martin who has skill and a style all her own. I saw another reviewer refer to this book as a "sophisticated children's book" and I must concur.

The story (which is what generally attracts me to any given book) is about a little girl in a big city who is on her way to a city orchestra concert. She travels to the concert via the subway/train but is separated from the adult she was going to the concert with. She thinks it'll be easy to find the concert on her own and so she proceeds on to her intended destination. Along the way she discovers music all over the city.

The text in this book is extremely minimal. In fact, it can be hard to find, as it blends in with the artwork itself. For that reason, I can't say that we enjoyed it very much ourselves as we're the type that enjoy a good, solid story. This wasn't it. This book is meant to inspire art and craft projects though and since I know a fair number of you are far more creative than I am, I decided to share this book with you anyway. I have a feeling it will inspire you a bit.

It would be hard for me to describe Martin's style so instead I will just show it to you:




The above images definitely give you a taste of what you will find within the pages of Symphony City.

I know this doesn't come across as an enthusiastic review of this book. Again, I'm more excited about stories in words and as this one felt extremely weak, I'm not terribly excited about the book. It IS all about the artwork in my opinion. So you must take it for that, if nothing else.

Thank you, McSweeney's McMullen's, for sending a copy my way for me to check out. The opinions expressed above are thoroughly my own (as I should think would be obvious!)