Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #799601 in Books
• Published on: 1983-05-12
• Format: Large Print
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 36 pages

Review
Fiddle-laddie - but celebrities have done worse. "Some time ago in another country, there Lived a king who had eight fiddlers, a wise cat named Joachim, so many accountants they couldn't be counted - and hardly any money." The accountants can't be counted, says Joachim, because "each time you count them there are more of them." Why more and more? "To tell you how to save what little money you have." At that, the Chief Accountant proposes dismissing the fiddlers and the King, "tired of teaks in the roof and cold fireplaces," accedes. But, in one of the sayings to which all and sundry are given: "A palace without music is like a hive without honey." Joachim reappears, fiddle-under-chin; via special exercises, he teaches the King how to make his own music; and the accountants, apprised that "counting time played a very important role in music," agree to try too. With Joachim conducting (from atop a lyre-backed chair), the no-less-dapper accountants fill the palace once again with music, "the King leading the violins." A bravura punctilio in the full-color, mock-Ruritanian illustrations matches the spirit of the text - and, most engagingly, Menuhin himself serves as the model for the appended drawings (by David Wire) of violin exercises. (Kirkus Reviews)