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"Symphony City" by Amy Martin

Martin, Amy. Symphony City. McSweeney’s McMullens, 2011

     A pair of books* from a publisher I didn’t know about, indicates a very impressive commitment to doing high quality children’s books that are unusual.  Each comes with a heavy weight jacket, which when unfolded reveals a poster which stretches to an impressive 26 ¾ inch square. 

In this case, small vignettes of each of the ten instruments featured later extend and expand visual ideas presented in the book itself.  Removing the jacket for this book, we see a bright orange cover which features a flock of gold ink birds flying across the top of the book.  Opening to end papers, we are introduced to the highly saturated colors used by Martin which will appear throughout the text.

     The opening of the story is a fairly subdued beige, highlighted in just a few places with more intense color as the little girl, bored, sets off on a walk with the adult.  She gets lost and the as color intensifies in saturation when the little girl gets closer and hears a variety of musicians, a different one on nearly every page.  Highly simplified shapes and enough empty space to provide contrast make this is a real commitment to quality book making, all enhanced by the quality of the very heavy matte paper.

     While these are certainly not immediately appealing to a wide child audience, they are well worth introducing to children. Visual taste, as taste in music, often develops slowly as result of guided looking or listening.  The publisher has made a calculated commitment to quality book making.  Hopefully enough teachers, librarians, and parents will sense this quality to make more books like this come from the publisher.

     *The other book by Sheila Heti is available under the author’s last name on this website.

John Warren Stewig

Carthage College

The Center for Children’s Literature

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