The Story Orchestra: Swan Lake: Press the note to hear Tchaikovsky's music (Volume 4)

This series is amazing. My son loves to listen along to the story and the music! Illustrations are beautiful as well.

These are stunningly beautiful musical books! My daughter absolutely adores them! The illustrations are bright and colorful! We already have a lot of these books.

I love these books! I think the only improvement that could be made would be to make them rechargeable via a plug in cord rather than a battery. But my kids love these!

I am a ballet teacher, and I purchased this book for a Swan Lake-themed kids' summer workshop. The children absolutely love getting to press the buttons to play the music (it's difficult for them to press hard enough through the pages while I'm holding the book, so I flip to the back where the buttons are repeated). They also love the illustrations, especially the beautiful Queen and, of course, Odette. The story is a fairly straightforward, slightly simplified version of the ballet libretto. Swan Lake is a ballet with multiple possible endings depending on which company performs it, and I was glad that this edition chose a happy ending for Odette and Siegfried, although this story adds that Odile and Rothbart are cursed to remain as a swan and an owl forever. Each page corresponds to a fairly short (8 bars or so) but good-quality audio clip of the orchestra. The musical selections were well chosen, using some of the most well-known themes of the ballet (the Act 1 Valse, the Act 2 Cygnets or "four little swans," the opening and closing theme of Act 2, etc.). I personally might have chosen Odette's variation instead of the pas de deux, but the pas de deux music conveys the emotion of the scene much more effectively. Tchaikovsky's score is so evocative, and the short sound bytes are really effective for young children. Additionally, I appreciate that the editors got around any potential confusion regarding the black swan pas de deux (different companies use one of two different pas de deux because of historical drama is worth reading about if you're interested) by instead using the piece of music after the pas de deux, when Odile and Rothbart reveal themselves. This piece of music also reinforces the main musical motif of the ballet. This would be a great book for a grown-up to read to a pre-reader or early reader. A young reader would have to know a lot of sight words to be able to read this book on their own, but the vocabulary is not terrible complex and there aren't too many words on the page. I would like to add one final note of appreciation for the illustrator. The pictures are not only beautifully drawn and vibrantly colored, but the illustrator made several characters, including Siegfried, the Queen, and Odette herself, people of color. This is a rarity in fairy tales and even more so in ballet, which has been populated predominantly by white dancers since its creation. It's a refreshing change to see many different skin tones represented in a fantasy story. The only thing I can't comment on is the battery life of the book, since it's new. I'll do what I can to preserve it. I have a small lending library in my studio so I'll see if there's a way to remove or switch off the battery until the book is checked out. I look forward to purchasing more books from this collection for my little dancers to enjoy.

4year old granddaughter loved this book on Christmas Eve. It is beautiful as are all in this series.

We love this book! My 4 year-old loves the story and music. I love reading it to her and hope this sparks her appreciation for classical music and introduces her to ballet. The buttons are hard for little ones but it helps if the book is on a flat surface. The point of the book is the story and music and I love the illustration. Everything I expected and I highly recommend.

I adore these books and I quickly bought the entire collection. My kids love them and we read them over and over. It's important to mention that the books themselves are a bit flimsy and get destroyed easily. I want the author to know this because they are so wonderful. But anything in the hands of kids under 6 is going to get a bit roughed up and I think she should adjust the product a little bit to make it a little more able to take a beating. The sound itself is exceptionally good. It's the spine of the book and the way the pages easily separate from the center and fall out that is the issue.

The grands favorite books!

C'est magique, c'est plein de poésie et, une fois de plus, les illustrations de Jessica Courtney Tickle vous emmènent dans un monde féerique...

We have the sleeping beauty one and love it so I bought this for my daughter and I to read as well. Just like the first one this book is beautifully illustrated and the music is lovely and you can hear it very clearly. Really like this brand of books. This is our second one and I’m very happy with the quality.

Very good quality book. Cover is fantastic looking and the music is clear. I had got the baby book and was disappointed in the short storyline, this book is much more interesting!

My kid really loves this book and the story! We finally understand this classical ballet and can enjoy it more. It's a beautifuly illustrated book! And after reading, my daughter said "i like this man" pointing at Tchaikovsky

Minha filha gostou muito, apesar de ainda nao ter forca pra apertar os botoes. As ilustracoes sao lindas.