Book Review v1 n1
Stories of Composers for Young Musicians by Catherine Wolff Kendall
This book and its sequel, More Stories of Composers, are both available to branch members through the Auckland Branch library. Each book consists of 30 to 40 stories, four or five pages long, on a very diverse range of composers. All the “Suzuki” composers are there plus others.
These little biographies could be read to children, or by children from the age of about nine.
Whereas the stories are not exactly gripping for the children of today, brought up on Terry and the Gunrunners and Star Trek, there are plenty of anecdotes; such as when Bach as an 18-year-old church organist is growled at by a member of the church council and told that his job is to just keep up with the congregation’s singing and not to confuse them with “all those variations.”
The books are in large print and have illustrations and a list of composers’ birthdays.
Published by Toadwood, Edwardsville, Illinois; I bought these books from Kentuckiana Music Supply. Full address available from me.
Ruth Ormond
To the NZSI Membership
Quite a few people from throughout NZ have written to me from time to time requesting books from the Auckland Branch library. I have usually had to refuse those requests and have not always had the time to even let you know why. For one, I find it difficult keeping up with the needs of my own branch; particularly when I am efficient in sending off the books—it makes people keener and the demand greater!
The second, and more important reason, is that there is always a waiting list for the popular books and I need to supply my own branch in preference to anyone else.
I know this is very hard on some people in the new branches where a library may still be in its infancy. To compensate for this, I would be more than willing to give any advice I can to anyone wanting to improve a branch library and who, like me, is not a qualified librarian. The help I can give will be pretty basic, but will be willingly given if it is needed—such things as where to get books, what books to buy, etc. The first piece of advice I can give right now, although it will be no revelation—your branch needs to fundraise, because buying books is a very expensive business. Auckland Branch did receive a grant from the ASB this year after making a submission to the ASB in February.
Good luck.
Ruth Ormond