The Note Who Faced the Music by Lindsay Bonilla- Review and Craft Chat by Kathy Halsey

It’s Wednesday, time to feature another dear author friend, Lindsay Bonilla, with her newest book, The Note That Faced the Music, which launched last Tuesday. Happy Book Birthday to Half Note, Lindsay, and illustrator Mark Hoffman! 

Book Review

Half Note doesn’t feel whole or that she measures up to all the other notes that Conductor has at his disposal in The Note That Faced the Music. All the other notes seem so important, so much better. Sure that she won’t be missed, Half Note leaves her friends. Yet, Composer and the entire ensemble need her to make the music sing. 

This fun, snappy tale is full of punny language and illustrations that make the story pop. Readers of all ages will connect to the universal themes of being left out and comparing oneself to others. Musical terminology is deftly woven through the text, and back matter expands on the terms and offers a great illustration of how to count the beats from whole note to sixteenth note. Note will be appreciated by elementary music teachers, and educators looking for Social Emotional Learning books. This is a great read aloud choice for school and public librarians, too.      

(Full disclosure: As one of Lindsay’s critique mates, I’ve been excited about this manuscript for some time. Seeing early sketches and the F & G was fun for both of us! If you’re a GROG follower, though, you’ll know I only review books that I wholeheartedly endorse.)

Lindsay and I at the Northern Ohio SCBWI Fall Conference 2022

Craft Chat with Lindsay Bonilla

Kathy: Do you have a ritual for how to write early drafts?

 

Lindsay: Absolutely not! LOL  I may be one of the most discombobulated authors you’ll ever meet. All I can say is, “Get it down!” Sometimes that’s the first line of the book. Sometimes it’s an outline. Sometimes it’s ideas for silly puns or twists that the story could have. Whatever you have, get it down. And don’t let what you don’t know, keep you from writing down what you do know. Gaps can be filled in over time. 

 

Kathy: Love that advice, Lindsay, and that honesty. What was the most fun about writing The Note Who Faced the Music?

 

Lindsay: Probably the puns and musical word play! I had so much fun discovering new ones and seeing how they could be used in the book. One of my favorite parts of the text is probably the exchange between Natural, Sharp and Flat.

 

Kathy: Some people think when you write fiction there is no research involved. Do you have a musical background that you could rely on, or did you do some research? How do you decide to include back matter or take the extra information and use it in a teachers’ guide?

 

Lindsay: I do not have a musical background. In fact, you often hear it said, “Write what you know.” But if I followed that advice, I would never have written this book! I definitely had to do research. Thankfully, I’d been in choir back in middle school, so many of the notes, symbols and terms started coming back to me once I began diving in. I also relied on my husband and some friends who are much more musical than I am to check my manuscript for accuracy!

 

I knew all along that I would want to have back matter with a glossary. I think it makes the musical concepts in the book easier to understand when you have them all in one place for quick reference. My editor, Kayla Tostevin, and I worked on this section together, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. I love how the vocabulary is broken down into clever sections, and I really love the “note tree” that shows how many beats each note gets and how many notes it takes to have the same beats as another note.

 

Page Street will also be releasing an educator’s guide to go along with the book. So there are tons of ways for readers to deepen their learning about music and the other themes of the book, like self-worth, belonging and friendship!

 

Kathy: So great that you have a publisher releasing the educator’s guide. That’s a lot of work. You employ lots of wordplay and some higher-level vocabulary such as “cacophonous” in the text, which I so appreciate and love. Give me your thoughts about sophisticated words in picture books.

Lindsay: I believe that kids are sophisticated, and that often, we don’t give them enough credit. My own children (6 and 8) have been my guides in this department. From the time they were very small, they would often shock me and my family members with their amazing vocabularies. How did they get these amazing vocabularies? From being exposed to rich language from the time they were small! (Kathy: I know Lindsay’s boys; they have great vocabularies. Sometimes they play “editor” and “writer,” too. LOL)

 

I would rather give my readers higher-level vocabulary used in context an have them learn fun, new words than assume that they won’t be able to understand and leave them out. Because picture books are designed to be read (and re-read!) with an adult, I think they are a perfect place for introducing higher-level vocab and difficult concepts in general.

 Kathy: Mark Hoffmann’s illustrations add energy and drama to the plot. Do you have a favorite spread?  Were you able to make suggestions as to what illustrator was chosen for the project

 

Lindsay: Ooh, that’s a tough question! I love the spread where Composer is searching for Half Note and all the other notes and his compositions are flying all over the place. I also love the last spread because it gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling as it brings all the characters together while highlighting Half Note who has finally found her place.

 

As for choosing the illustrator for the project, Page Street sent me links to the portfolios of 3 different illustrators. They were all fantastic, but I especially loved Mark’s work. He had many different anthropomorphized characters, and they all had such big personalities! His work also had this playful, humorous quality that I felt would add a lot to the telling of NOTE — and it did!

Lindsay Bonilla will be sharing Half Note at the Ohioana Book Festival soon!

Kathy: Will you be doing a blog tour or any author visits in conjunction with this launch? Tell us a bit about your newest projects.

 

Lindsay: I did an interview recently with music educator and writer Tonnye Fletcher for her blog, PB Jamz which spotlights books with musical hooks. She’ll be featuring NOTE over 2 weeks, and in addition to sharing our interview, will also be posting some activities to go along with the book!

 

On March 29th, I’ll be doing an interview with Mel Rosenberg of the New Books Network  — so stay tuned for that! I will also be in-person at the Ohioana Book Festival in Columbus, OH on April 22nd.

 

As for future projects, I’ve got two books coming out with Nancy Paulsen/Penguin — THE STORYTELLER in March 2024 and THE HOLE in Spring 2025. Both of these books are very special to me, and a big departure from what I’ve written previously, so I can’t wait to share them with the world. I also have one other book coming soon which hasn’t been announced yet, so stay tuned!