Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Hyperion Book CH (2003), Edition: First Printing, Hardcover, 56 pages
Description
Aninku and Pepicek find their mother sick one morning, they need to buy her milk to make her better. The brother and sister go to town to make money by singing. But a hurdy-gurdy grinder, Brundibar, chases them away. They are helped by three talking animals and three hundred schoolchildren, to defeat the bully. Brundibar is based on a Czech opera for children that was performed fifty-five times by the children of Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp in 1943.
Awards
Sydney Taylor Book Award (Mass Import -- Pending Differentiation)
CCBC Choices (2004)
Language
Lexile
L
User reviews
LibraryThing member rosinalippi
This is an energetic, complex, visually vibrant story based on a Czech opera with a dark history. It was performed many times by children in concentration camps, and in fact Brundibar -- the bad guy -- looks a bit like Hitler. Sendak's illustrations almost pop off the page, Kushner's prose is
Adults can read Brundibar for the complex backstory and analogies, but kids will like it for its nutty energy.
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perfectly pitched. Two children's frantic errand to find milk for their sick mother turns into a marathon involving all the village's children and (my favorite touch) one of the bakers from In the Night Kitchen.Adults can read Brundibar for the complex backstory and analogies, but kids will like it for its nutty energy.
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LibraryThing member sweetiegherkin
Two children go into town to fetch fresh milk for their ailing mother. However, they don't have the money to pay for it so they try singing in the square to make some change. But Brundibar drowns out their singing with his organ grinding. Can the children overcome the bully and get the milk their
This book is based on an opera of the same name, which was infamously performed by children held in a Nazi concentration camp. While the text of the book makes no mention of anything related to World War II or the Holocaust, Sendak's illustrations do. An optimistic ending about help always being available keeps the book from being too heartbreaking, but then a final page spread has a note from Brundibar saying how "Bullies don't give up completely. One departs, the next appears..." I suppose that is meant to be cautionary in a "never forget" way, but it does leave the book on a bit of downer.
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mother needs?This book is based on an opera of the same name, which was infamously performed by children held in a Nazi concentration camp. While the text of the book makes no mention of anything related to World War II or the Holocaust, Sendak's illustrations do. An optimistic ending about help always being available keeps the book from being too heartbreaking, but then a final page spread has a note from Brundibar saying how "Bullies don't give up completely. One departs, the next appears..." I suppose that is meant to be cautionary in a "never forget" way, but it does leave the book on a bit of downer.
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LibraryThing member eecnelsen
This book would be very fun early elemenry readers. There is a main story but there is also little captions from each character. The main idea of the story is that bullies don't have to win if you stand up to them. The illistrations were captivating making you take your time and look at each page
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carefully. Show Less
LibraryThing member AllieW
Lavishly illustrated, as one would expect of a Sendak book, this is a wonderful story about overcoming bullies. Based on the 1938 Czech opera of the same name, the story concerns two children, Pepicek and Aninku, whose mother is unwell. The doctor recommends that they get her fresh milk, so they
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set off on the long walk to town to obtain it. Once there, they realise they need money, but their attempts to earn that by singing on their own come to nothing because of the loud music of Brundibar who dominates the square. With the help of a talking cat, dog, sparrow and 300 children they manage to defeat him and earn enough money to purchase the required milk. This is utterly delightful and my nearly-two daughter was enchanted. Show Less
LibraryThing member conuly
This is going to be a bit of a complex review, so let's get on with it.
First, some backstory. Brundibar was an opera performed by the children of Theresienstadt concentration camp as a sop to show the Red Cross that they weren't being maltreated. Most of those children were later killed at
It is clear from the illustrations that this book was not just inspired by the opera itself, but by the Holocaust. Or, no, not that it was *inspired* by the Holocaust, but that it's in tribute to those children. The illustrations have swastikas, many characters wear yellow armbands with a Star-of-David on them, the wicked character Brundibar looks like Hitler. At one point the children sing a lullabye about growing up and leaving, and the spread following the lullabye shows children being carried off by crows while their mothers weep - to adult eyes, it looks plainly like they're meant to be dead, although my nieces (pre-k and first grade) have never commented on it at all.
Now, you can take these details and go with them as far as you like. You can talk about what the pictures obviously represent,, or you can ignore them entirely. Either way is up to you, and I can't say one way is better than the other.
As far as the story itself, it's written in a sort of half-comic style, with the characters speaking in dialog bubbles, often directly to the reader. There are some scary scenes - they're chased from the square by the villainous Brundibar and hide overnight in an alley, there's the constant fear that their sick mother will die if they don't succeed in earning money for milk, and at the end of the book, after their triumphant victory, we have a message from Brundibar himself saying "Bullies don't give up completely. One departs, the next appears..." which I guess is true enough, but a bit depressing to contemplate.
My nieces adore this book. At one point, when the older one was three, I was reading it several times a day. The only problems I actually have with it is that a lot of the dialog is explicitly called "singing", but there's no indication of the tune, so you have to kinda make it up. This frustrates me, especially the aforementioned lullaby, which is kinda long and takes up two pages of text.
I recommend this book. However, I do suggest you read it first. If you think you'll be uncomfortable with the subject matter I mentioned, or that you don't want to have to explain it to your children, you shouldn't buy it.
First, some backstory. Brundibar was an opera performed by the children of Theresienstadt concentration camp as a sop to show the Red Cross that they weren't being maltreated. Most of those children were later killed at
Show More
Auschwitz. It is clear from the illustrations that this book was not just inspired by the opera itself, but by the Holocaust. Or, no, not that it was *inspired* by the Holocaust, but that it's in tribute to those children. The illustrations have swastikas, many characters wear yellow armbands with a Star-of-David on them, the wicked character Brundibar looks like Hitler. At one point the children sing a lullabye about growing up and leaving, and the spread following the lullabye shows children being carried off by crows while their mothers weep - to adult eyes, it looks plainly like they're meant to be dead, although my nieces (pre-k and first grade) have never commented on it at all.
Now, you can take these details and go with them as far as you like. You can talk about what the pictures obviously represent,, or you can ignore them entirely. Either way is up to you, and I can't say one way is better than the other.
As far as the story itself, it's written in a sort of half-comic style, with the characters speaking in dialog bubbles, often directly to the reader. There are some scary scenes - they're chased from the square by the villainous Brundibar and hide overnight in an alley, there's the constant fear that their sick mother will die if they don't succeed in earning money for milk, and at the end of the book, after their triumphant victory, we have a message from Brundibar himself saying "Bullies don't give up completely. One departs, the next appears..." which I guess is true enough, but a bit depressing to contemplate.
My nieces adore this book. At one point, when the older one was three, I was reading it several times a day. The only problems I actually have with it is that a lot of the dialog is explicitly called "singing", but there's no indication of the tune, so you have to kinda make it up. This frustrates me, especially the aforementioned lullaby, which is kinda long and takes up two pages of text.
I recommend this book. However, I do suggest you read it first. If you think you'll be uncomfortable with the subject matter I mentioned, or that you don't want to have to explain it to your children, you shouldn't buy it.
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LibraryThing member NataliaLucia
Personal Response: I felt very sad after reading Brundibar because of the historical context. It was originally performed as an opera by children in Terezin, a concentration camp. I eventually felt inspired that Hans Krasa, Adolf Hoffmeister, and the children were able to perform this poignant
Curricular Connection: Reading Brundibar would present an opportunity to discuss bullying. Children could talk about ways to stand up to bullies and share stories about times they've been bullied or bullied other people. The teacher could pose the question: what would you do if you were Pepicek or Aninku and Brundibar was trying to stop you?
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story under such terrifying conditions.Curricular Connection: Reading Brundibar would present an opportunity to discuss bullying. Children could talk about ways to stand up to bullies and share stories about times they've been bullied or bullied other people. The teacher could pose the question: what would you do if you were Pepicek or Aninku and Brundibar was trying to stop you?
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ISBN
0786809043 / 9780786809042