Based on a Czech opera that was performed 55 times by children in Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp, Brundibar is an odd, urgent little tale of a brother and sister who are desperately trying to get their hands on some milk for their sick mother. They race to the village center, only to discover that they need money to buy milk. Unfortunately, all the money in town seems to be going to the nefarious hurdy-gurdy man, Brundibar. Enter three talking animals and 300 willing children (bearing balloons stating "WE DON’T MIND SKIPPING SCHOOL"), and things start looking up for little Aninku and Pepicek. Retold by playwright Tony Kushner and illustrated by Caldecott Medal recipient Maurice Sendak, this operatic story is just nutty enough to become a favorite for open-minded young readers. Sendak fans will smile to see the village baker, who bears a striking resemblance to the baker in Sendak's In the Night Kitchen. His chaotic, jam-packed illustrations reveal witty little subplots to the libretto text (written all in upper case), which sharp-eyed readers will enjoy discovering. (Ages 5 to 8) --Emilie Coulter


From School Library Journal
K Up-A picture book based on a 1938 Czech opera, originally performed by the children of Terezin. A brother and sister try to get milk for their sick mother. They sing for coins in the town square, but Brundibar the organ grinder drowns out their words with his "teeth-chattery bone-rattley horrible song." Pepicek and Aninku then join voices with 300 other children and earn enough coins to fill their "soon-to-be-milkbucket." The playful language, with occasional rhyme and alliteration, is a perfect match for Sendak's spirited young heroes. The illustrations reflect varied undertones of a powerful story that works on different levels, including many references to the Holocaust. Scenes in the town show rich adults ignoring the desperate siblings, while other children also suffer from hunger. A banner matches a sign that covered the gates of Auschwitz, and several townsfolk wear yellow Stars of David. Brundibar vaguely resembles Hitler, particularly in one scene where he appears, huge and purple faced, with a clenched fist. A wordless spread showing grieving parents is poignant in itself, but tragic within the Holocaust context. Most kids won't get the literal references, but will respond directly to the images of the ominous, yet hopeful world depicted. In the end everyone sings triumphantly that "the wicked never win" and "our friends make us strong," but a final scribbled message from Brundibar promises that he'll be back. This is an ambitious picture book that succeeds both as a simple children's story and as a compelling statement against tyranny.Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, ORCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Gr. 1-4, with help from an adult. Based on a Czech opera (originally performed at a concentration camp) restaged by Sendak and Kushner, this story, filled with familiar folktale motifs, takes Pepecik and his sister, Anniku, into a dark, complex adult world where their simple hope to help their ill mother is bent at every turn. When the doctor tells the siblings their mother must have fresh milk, they hurry into town with their pails. But milk costs money. Noticing adults flinging coins at Brundibar the organ grinder, the children try singing, but they can't be heard over Brundibar's bellowing. Then the kids transmogrify into bears, prompting a song of hatred from Brundibar. The children return to themselves, crushed that there's to be no milk. But wait. Three hundred children march, holding banners with slogans such as "Bullies must be defied." Their communal song is heard, to the fury of Brundibar, who tries to steal their coins, before being driven out of town. The children buy the milk, Mommy revives, and the story ends happily. Or does it? A postcard from Brundibar warns that bullies always return. There is so much for children to cope with here that it's difficult to predict their reactions. Unlike an opera, where music cues responses, this leaves kids on their own to sort out turbulent emotions and to absorb images such as crows carrying off children and Jewish characters wearing yellow stars. Vigorous and unsettling (as are some of the included song lyrics), the artwork demands repeated looks, with Sendak recalling some familiar characters, such as the chef from In the Night Kitchen, and in kaleidoscopic fashion presenting them in an entirely new design. This is not for casual reading, but children of a variety of ages can be introduced to the story, which, with an adult's help, can be used for edification and discussion. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
When Aninku and Pepicek discover one morning that their mother is sick, they rush to town for milk to make her better. Their attempt to earn money by singing is thwarted by a bullying, bellowing hurdy-gurdy grinder, Brundibar, who tyrannizes the town square and chases all other street musicians away. Befriended by three intelligent talking animals and three hundred helpful schoolkids, brother and sister sing for the money to buy the milk, defeat the bully, and triumphantly return home. Brundibar is based on a Czech opera for children that was performed fifty-five times by the children of Terezin, the Nazi concentration camp


About the Author
Tony Kushner's plays include "A Bright Room Called Day"; "The Illusion"; "Angels In America, Parts One and Two"; "Slavs!"; "Hydrotaphia"; "Homebody/Kabul"; and adaptations of Goethe's "Stella", Brecht's "The Good Person of Setzuan", and Ansky's "The Dybbuk". His work has been produced at theatres around the United States and in over thirty countries around the world. He is the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1993 and 1994 Tony Awards for Best Play, among other awards. Maurice Sendak received the 1964 Caldecott Medal for "Where the Wild Things Are." In 1970 he received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration, in 1983 he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association, and in 1996 he received a National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contribution to the arts in America. In March 2003, Sendak received the first Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an annual international prize for children's literature established by the Swedish government.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Legendary children's author Maurice Sendak and Tony Award winner Tony Kushner team up for a remarkable, thought-provoking retelling of a classic Czech opera with inspiring historical overtones -- the opera was performed 55 times by children in the Nazi concentration camp of Terezin. Along with Sendak's rich illustrations that hearken back to his classic style, Kushner recounts the story of Aninku and Pepicek, who go to town in search of milk for their sick mother. Unfortunately, the two children can't pay for the milk, but when they spot a singing Brundibar -- an organ grinder -- garnering lots of attention and raking in coins, they decide to try their own performance. The trouble is, no one can hear them, "all because of bellowing Brundibar." Forced into an alley after a frightening confrontation with the bullying organ grinder, they meet up with three animals who end up recruiting 300 children to help drive Brundibar away. Beginning with a bright atmosphere that soon turns dark and foreboding, Kushner and Sendak's tale is a solid, intense tour de force that weaves together Jewish history, hope, and the struggle between good and evil. (The last word is a note from Brundibar: "Bullies don't give up completely. One departs, the next appears, and we shall meet again, my dears!"). Kushner's language is bold and fluent, while Sendak never lets readers forget the broader significance of this tale, peppering the pages with Stars of David; signs and newspapers in Czech, German, and Hebrew; and Brundibar's companion monkey, who wears a German spiked helmet. A soul-stirring book that will touch readers of many generations on many levels. Matt Warner

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When Aninku and Pepicek discover one morning that their mother is sick, they rush to town for milk to make her better. Their attempt to earn money by singing is thwarted by a bullying, bellowing hurdy-gurdy grinder, Brundibar, who tyrannizes the town square and chases all other street musicians away. Befriended by three intelligent talking animals and three hundred helpful schoolkids, brother and sister sing for the money buy the milk, defeat the bully, and triumphantly return home. Brundibar is based on a Czech opera for children that was performed fifty-five times by the children of Terezin, the Nazi concentration camp.

About the Author and Illustrator

Tony Kushner's plays include "A Bright Room Called Day"; "The Illusion"; "Angels In America, Parts One and Two"; "Slavs!"; "Hydrotaphia"; "Homebody/Kabul"; and adaptations of Goethe's "Stella", Brecht's "The Good Person of Setzuan", and Ansky's "The Dybbuk". His work has been produced at theatres around the United States and in over thirty countries around the world. He is the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the 1993 and 1994 Tony Awards for Best Play, among other awards.

Maurice Sendak received the 1964 Caldecott Medal for "Where the Wild Things Are." In 1970 he received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration, in 1983 he received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association, and in 1996 he received a National Medal of Arts in recognition of his contribution to the arts in America. In March 2003, Sendak received the first Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an annual international prize for children's literature established by the Swedish government.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

Just when one might have thought that the most celebrated living picture-book artist could retire with his laurels, along comes Maurice Sendak's collaboration with Tony Kushner, Brundibar, a capering picture book crammed with melodramatic menace and comedy both low and grand.

In a career that spans 50 years and counting, as Sendak's does, there are bound to be lesser works. Brundibar is not lesser than anything. — Gregory Maguire

Washington Post Book World

This tale, based on a 1938 Czech opera performed by children in the Nazi concentration camp at Terezin, near Prague, is retold by playwright Tony Kushner, but it is pure Sendak just the same: multi-layered, quirky and more than a little didactic. For once, though, the moral is crystal clear: Bullies and tyrants are always with us, but they can be temporarily routed.

....On one level just a jaunty tale of a small-town bully's comeuppance, on another level Brundibar appears to be a parable of the Holocaust, the ultimate image of murderous oppression. Sendak's illustrations, among the best he has ever done, navigate between the two.

....Children won't grasp most of these symbols unaided, but they will sense the dark undercurrent in a general way -- and the chill rising off the final page, with its postcard from the vanquished Brundibar, promising to return, for "nothing ever works out neatly -- Bullies don't give up completely. One departs, the next appears." Luckily, we sense that Sendak's feisty urchins, in their rainbow-colored rags, will be ready for him. — Elizabeth Ward

Publishers Weekly

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Kushner adapts this allegorical tale from a Czech opera created by Hans Kr sa and Adolf Hoffmeister in 1938 (see Children's Books, Oct. 27). A doctor wearing the Star of David on his jacket dispatches siblings Aninku and Pepicek to town to find milk for their sick mother. Sendak, in a mix of fantasy and reality elements reminiscent of his In the Night Kitchen (especially the cameo appearance of a baker), thrusts the siblings-and readers-into an exotic backdrop of stone buildings topped by spires and turrets, but with familiar details such as a horse grazing behind a picket fence and a field of flowers. The two try to earn money to buy the milk, but their voices are drowned out by the noise of the "bellowing Brundibar"; Brundibar's refrain ("Little children, how I hate 'em/ How I wish the bedbugs ate 'em") exemplifies Kushner's skill at tempering the potentially frightening with the comic. The dialogue and comments featured in balloons above the characters also inject an appealing spontanaeity and levity to the proceedings. A trio of talking animals and 300 children come to the duo's aid. Working in colored pencils, crayons and brush pens, Sendak conjures bustling Slavic city streets and effectively juxtaposes innocence and evil in the cherubic visages of the children and Brundibar's ominously hyperbolic facial features (the villain's manicured mustache calls to mind the reigning tyrant of the time). Despite a final threat from Brundibar, the story is ultimately one of hope, as the children and their allies band together to defeat the evil foe. The collaborators wisely allow readers to appreciate the story on one level, yet those familiar with the opera's origins (a note in the flap copy tells of Kr sa's death at Auschwitz) will find a haunting subtext here. All ages. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz

Aninku and Pepicek rush to town because the doctor says that their sick mother must have milk. There they try to sing to earn money to buy it. But a nasty organ grinder thwarts their attempts. Helped by animals and a troupe of children, they sing until the money accumulated in their bucket buys the milk to make their mother well. The triumphant chorus of "the wicked never win" is particularly poignant because this story is based on a Czech opera performed by the children at the Terezin concentration camp; the text includes what must be the words to arias from that opera. And after the happy ending comes a chilling warning from the wicked Brundibar, "I'll be back." Sendak creates many delightful new characters, but also includes familiar faces from previous creations, all in his recognizable style. The full color illustrations appear as stage sets, with some text in speech balloons and a running commentary in upper case letters. The scenes are crowded with groups of townspeople and details of place (including yellow stars and skull caps on some of the crowd); they are of joy, of despair, of comic melodrama, rich with visual challenges. Do not miss the end-papers and the contrasting jacket and cover. 2003, Michael Di Capua Books/Hyperion Books for Children, Ages 4 up.

VOYA - Sarah K. Herz, Guest Reviewer