4 Stars 
 

The book is a short biography of the famous music composer Joaquin Rodrigo. As someone who hasn’t heard of him, I was curious to know more. I did check the Wiki page (but after reading the book). 

Since the book is aimed at kids, it provides the important details in short snippets – a few lines on each page with a beautiful illustration to accompany it. 

Joaquin Rodrigo had diphtheria when he was three years old and lost his eyesight. This inspired him to take an interest in music. His parents encouraged his passion, and soon he was creating his own pieces and even writing the musical notes in Braille. After his death (due to old age), the musician’s daughter established a foundation to preserve his works and sponsors prizes for certain performances. Some of this data is provided at the end on a single page. 

I appreciate the care taken to break down the details for young readers. The watercolor illustrations are lovely with an old-world charm and deliberately indistinct features for the characters. Only young Joanquin’s face gets good detailing in close-ups, which makes him stand out. 

The concept of switching to black-and-white illustrations after his loss of sight is great. I love that the last illustration is again in color and has significance revealed by the text. 

The author provided additional information at the end. There’s a short example and a sample of how the music notes will look in Braille. Then, there are a few activities for children to explore how our senses help us interact with the world around us and how to enhance the sensory experience. 

To summarize, A Boy Who Made Music is a compact and heartwarming biography of a great musician, Joaquin Rodrigo. It should appeal to children who enjoy music or talk about disabilities and their impact on life. 

My thanks to the author for an electronic copy of the book. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinions.