Leopold von Kittenkatt conducts an orchestra, but when his baton disappears he doesn't know how that night's show can go on. In his search for the missing baton, he asks each of the members of his orchestra, all of whom are from different countries and play their homelands' signature instruments.
The book is filled with "creative" spellings which are not only hard to read aloud, but could confuse children and reinforce the misspelled versions of the words. For example, "musician" becomes "mewsician," "orchestra" becomes "orcatstra," and "maestro" becomes "meowstro." In addition, the rhymes and rhythm are off in many places, making a reading of this book seem just as out-of-tune as an orchestra that hasn't practiced. And, finally, the cats from the various countries are depicted according to very outdated stereotypes, not according to modern reality. For example, the Chinese and Japanese cats have buck teeth, and the French cat is extremely buxom and has both a beauty spot and a beret. On the plus side, the book does introduce a number of rare instruments and includes a glossary at the end, which is nice for a music curriculum. For the other reasons, however, I would have great difficulty recommending it.
EL -- NOT RECOMMENDED. Reviewed by: Caryn.
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