The Music of Life

Full of joy and discovery, Louis Thomas' The Music of Life is a simple, melodious picture book about finding big inspiration and beauty in the smallest of details.

At night when everyone else is asleep, one artist sits awake--pencil in hand, stuck. Lenny is a composer, but this evening, no music floats from his head.

Then as night breaks into dawn, Lenny's cat, Pipo, begins lapping milk. Lick lick lick. Birds yawn awake, singing in the trees. Tweet tweet! A bike bell tings on the street below. Suddenly, Lenny notices a rhythm to the world around him. He pulls on his coat and walks through the city to write down every sound he can find. Lenny listens to a gardener, a jogger, a dogwalker, and more neighborhood characters.

Finally, the morning's sounds culminate in a sun-dappled symphony that Lenny conducts in the center of the park.

"Drawing loose inspiration from the work of Leonard Bernstein, Thomas shows one way that composers find ideas, and loose, color-washed illustrations of Lenny’s Parisian world have something of the charm of Ludwig Bemelmans about them. A symphonic ode to the act of creation." —Publishers Weekly

"Lively and stimulating, inviting listeners to join in. Youngsters will remain engaged and enjoy mimicking the onomatopoeic sounds for the assorted noisemakers throughout." —Kirkus Reviews

"The lively and animated pen-and-watercolor cartoon artwork is the perfect complement to the upbeat text. VERDICT A fine choice for budding young artists and a nice reminder that the mundane can also be sublime." —School Library Journal

"The text deftly evokes the often-overlooked sounds of daily life, providing plenty of opportunities for young viewers to join in, making for a lively storytime read." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (BCCB)

"A lovely lesson on the wonders that await when one simply stops to notice." —Booklist