Pianoforte! The Music of Life: Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano by Elizabeth Rusch

The Italian city of Padua in the 1600s was filled with sound.

Horses' hooves and wagon wheels clatter down the cobblestone streets and workmen's hammers clang and bang all around. But Prince Ferdinando de Medici is oblivious to the cacophony as he leaps from his fancy carriage. A fine musician, the Prince is eager to hear the two famous musical instruments of Bartolomeo Cristoforo--the clavichord and the harpsichord.

But for Cristofori, the harpsichords and clavichords can only do so much.

The sound of the harpsichord is forte, always LOUD.

The sound of the clavichord is pianissimo, always SOFT.

If only Christoforo's keyboard instrument could fully express the music of life!

But in Italy, where the Renaissance is in full swing, many artists are also scientists, and Bartolomeo is likely the modern world's first mechanical sound engineer. He begins to experiment with the intensity of the sound of his two keyboard instruments. Their sound comes from the plucking of the strings connected to the keyboard, causing the strings inside, parts of a sort of harp lying on its side, to create the musical sounds. How about changing the metal of the strings? Bartolomeo observes materials used by the artisans and builders busy in Padua and tries different types of strings and different materials to strike those strings. He settles on brass strings and small wooden hammers. But will the volume vary when he strikes the keys gently and when he strikes them forcefully? Will the powerful Prince Medici be pleased?

Cristofori's invention, the pianoforte, can be played softly, loudly, and in between. It created the music of life in Padua around the inventor--from singing birds to crashing gongs--and it is an instant hit with the Medici's musician prince, and under its nickname, "the piano," it has been a hit ever since, in Elizabeth Rusch's The Music of Life: Bartolomeo Cristofori & the Invention of the Piano (Atheneum Books, 2017).

Author Rusch evokes the liveliness of the scene in old Padua with onomatopoeia, sibilant musical terms, and the intensity of the would-be pianist prince in this true story of the creation of the piano, ably assisted by artist Marjorie Priceman, a two-time Caldecott Honor winner, especially known for her hit companion book, Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin (Aladdin Picture Books). Priceman's illustrations flow sinuously throughout the well-designed text from page to page, mirroring the flow of musical sound itself.

This book is perfect for an elementary music teacher's personal class library, lends itself well to a little experimentation with assorted percussive and string instruments, and pairs well with an appropriate piano piece for a pleasantly satisfying literary music lesson. (For some piano and forte playing, hear "Fur Elise," here.)

Adds Kirkus Reviews, "Extensive backmatter further illuminates the text and invites readers to listen to recordings of surviving and replica pianos. Delightfully energetic, this will inspire young pianists."

Innovators! What Color Is My World? The Lost History of African American Inventors by Kareem Abdul Jabbar

NO ONE INVENTS ANYTHING. NOT BY THEMSELVES.

IN TRUTH ALL INVENTORS SHOULD BE CALLED INNOVATORS.

Who was that informative home handyman?

(Hi Yo, Black Historian, AWAY!)

Two rivalrous African American twins, a sarcastic girl and her trying-to-be-cool brother, are disappointed when they see their new house, somewhat in need of more than a bit of refurbishing, but when they meet Mr. R. E. Mital, a talkative handyman inside, he is eager to fill them in on history as well as household repairs.  This font of knowledge is not an exponent of the creative genius school of inventors, pointing out that invention is a cumulative human process, building on the work of predecessors, many totally unknown.  Mr. Mital even has a folksy analogy for Ella and Herbie to illustrate his thesis:

"See, inventing is like standing in a bucket brigade.

The last person in that line throws the water on the fire and gets all the credit for putting it out."

Quoting Isaac Newton's famous words about standing on the shoulders of giants, but skipping over the usual Black inventors, Mr. Mital tells the twins about such little-known incremental African American innovations such as James E. West, whose electro-coustic transducer made possible tiny microphones in many modern devices such as cell phones.  Such "innovators," as authors Jabbar and Obstfeld prefer to term them, may not be acclaimed for that big invention such as electric light bulbs, but like Edison, used previous discoveries to come up with innovative applications that made for significant advances, from Henry Sampson, whose binder for solid rocket fuel enabled improved rocket flight or James Lee, who invented the home bread machine which bakes a fragrant dinner loaf while the cook is at work. Such innovators changed their world in different ways--George Crum's "Saratoga" (potato) chips and Daniel Hale Williams' pioneering open-heart surgery techniques, Charles Drews' early blood banks and Dr. Percy Julian's synthesized, injectable cortisone, as well as Alfred Cralle's ice-cream scoop and Lonnie Johnson's indispensable  summertime weapon of choice, the "Super Soaker."

In their What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors (Candlewick Press, 2013, 2012), co-authors Jabbar and Obstfeld utilize the device of the fictional frame story of a contentious pair of 'tweener twins and a mysterious, "ghost" tutor disguised as a friendly handyman to point up some little-known inventors and their creations and their sizable contributions to modern life. Mr. Mital (his name is an inversion of one of the inventors) is a pleasant phantom narrator; illustrators Boos and Ford interpose drawings which elucidate the various inventors and their inventions; and Ella's hand-written "Fact" notes and her spirited sniping at her brother add kid appeal to the narrative. Interactive book design, with informational gatefold flaps and varied fonts and visual placement adding additional pizazz to the technical content.

Whether readers enjoy the lively back-and-forth banter between the fictional siblings or find it mildly annoying, the solid non-fiction content of this book makes it a good choice for upper elementary and middle school readers. "... an entertaining and often surprising exploration of lesser-known innovators, past and present," says Publisher Weekly."  a trailer featuring the celebrity author Jabbar can be viewed here.