Strange Mr. Satie (BCCB BLUE RIBBON NONFICTION BOOK AWARD (AWARDS)) - Hardcover

Anderson, M.T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670036374 ISBN 13: 9780670036370

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 2003

Synopsis

In Paris, at the turn of the twentieth century, when artists were experimenting with new ways of seeing things, Erik Satie had something new to say about music. Most people didn't understand his pieces; critics called his music surreal. But Erik Satie didn't care. He wanted to make music that followed no rules but its own. Satie's life was strange and wonderful, frenetic and lonely all at the same time. He was friends with Picasso, and with wizards and puppeteers; he scraped himself with a stone instead of bathing, and he once threw his acrobat girlfriend out a window. Now award-winning author M. T. Anderson tells the story of the irreverent French composer in a biography that is witty, accessible, and endlessly surprising, while Petra Mathers' fanciful illustrations capture all the vibrancy that was Erik Satie's topsy-turvy world.

Illustrations by Petra Mathers.

About this title

About the Author:

Petra Mathers lives in Astoria, Oregon.

From Booklist:

Gr. 1-3. Anderson, who gave us the delightful Handel, Who Knew What He Liked (2001), and Mathers, who illustrated the quirky Little Love Song (1992), team up for a deliciously offbeat look at the French composer Erik Satie, a very odd man who made very odd music: "like an old chant and wild tunes. . . mixed together." Satie threw the artist he loved out the window (but Suzanne Valadon was also an acrobat and survived), and he had some mighty peculiar personal habits (he didn't take baths, scraping himself with stones, instead). Mathers strikingly reflects the composer's life and times by using surrealistic elements in her pictures: Satie's piano's pedals look like a leg and foot; the hats people wear at the famous cafe Le Chat Noir might be plates or clocks or bumblebees. Anderson's text has a fine rhythm, and it doesn't shirk at the strangeness, making this suitable for older children, as well. An excellent author's note fills in the biography. GraceAnne DeCandido
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About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0670036374
• ISBN 13: 9780670036370
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Mathers Petra