Saturday, March 24, 2012

Peter and the Wolf

Sergei Prokofiev
illustrated by Erna Voigt 1980


illustrated by Peter Malone 2004


We have a couple picture book versions of this story. We were reading one in bed the other night and I remembered that there was a cd to accompany it. So the next day on a long drive up to the Perkie we listened to it. Charlotte brought the book along to look at and it's really a perfect thing to listen to on car rides. I know we have an old record album of it somewhere in our collection too.




Each character is represented by a musical instrument.  In the story Peter outwits the wolf who has crept out of the woods looking for something to eat.  I was surprised that Charlotte knew some of the instruments the characters were holding in the picture (violin, flute).  I haven't taught them to her, so she must have picked them up somewhere.




I love both styles of illustrations.  One feels more like folk art (and the duck drawn in the wolf's belly is fantastic!) and the other is softer, richer paintings.  Someday I would love to get my hands on the Charles Mikolaycak version.



4 comments:

  1. I have the Charles Mikolaycak version. It is wonderful. So is the one by Warren Chappell. I've been tempted to get this one for the CD - though we have it on record, too, our player is broken. You don't happen to have "The Carnival of the Animals", do you?

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  2. We don't have "The Carnival of Animals." I'll have to look for that one. Any specific illustrator?

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  3. There is a similar edition to this one that comes with a CD. Jack Prelutsky wrote some verses to accompany the music and Mary GrandPre illustrated it. There is a Look Inside preview on amazon and the reviews are favorable.

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  4. That certainly is a very unusual cover by Peter Malone! A lesser known version came out in 1982 in a 33 1/3 record album format with full page illustations and text inside. It was in French and narrated by Michel Drucker.

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