The Composer is Dead - Lemony Snicket

Illustrator: Carson Ellis
Music Composed by Nathaniel Stookey
2009
Rating: 4
Endpapers (back of covers): Silhouttes of composers

When the composer is found dead, the inspector is called in to interview all the usual suspects - the members of the orchestra. He starts with the strings, proceeds to the woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Their excuses were all plausible. And then the inspector remembered the conductor. "You've been murdering composers for years! In fact, wherever there's a conductor, you're sure to find a dead composer!" And then there's a long list of famous dead composers.

This is chock full of information about an orchestra and the instruments that make it up. I read the book at B&N, so I didn't get to listen to the CD - which was performed by the San Francisco Symphony. Looks like Tracks 1-9 are the story read by the author and tracks 10-18 are instrumentals. I'd love to hear it!

GREAT vocabulary; lurking, flamboyant, interrogate, weary, "on the contrary," crucial, treachery, alibis, boisterous, arrogant, ruckus, agitated, nostalgic, unison......

(Not my favorite illustrations, but they work with the book.)