Chil­dren’s

Leonard Bern­stein and Amer­i­can Music

Cather­ine Reef
  • Review
By – October 31, 2014

This is an exten­sive and well-writ­ten biogra­phy of con­duc­tor and com­pos­er Leonard Bern­stein, focus­ing main­ly on his pro­fes­sion­al achieve­ments and glo­ries with some atten­tion paid to his per­son­al life and the major events of his times — address­ing, as well, his Jew­ish back­ground and his con­nec­tions to Israel. It is illus­trat­ed pri­mar­i­ly with pho­tographs, both in black-and-white and col­or, and the back-mat­ter includes a time­line, a bib­li­og­ra­phy, a list of major works and web­sites. This book is an excel­lent, read­able, edu­ca­tion­al resource and a com­pre­hen­sive por­trait of a fas­ci­nat­ing man to whom music rep­re­sent­ed the finest parts of life. He was pas­sion­ate­ly involved in shar­ing this love of music with oth­ers, espe­cial­ly with the next gen­er­a­tion. Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 8 – 12.

Michal Hoschan­der Malen is the edi­tor of Jew­ish Book Coun­cil’s young adult and children’s book reviews. A for­mer librar­i­an, she has lec­tured on top­ics relat­ing to lit­er­a­cy, run book clubs, and loves to read aloud to her grandchildren.

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