Sonata for Fish and Boy

Written and illustrated by Milan Pavlović

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-161-0

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

May 2021

I love a good wordless picture book and Sonata for Fish and Boy is a good one. In the hands of illustrator Milan Pavlović, Sonata for Fish and Boy rejoices in the ability of music to endow our spirits and transport us to other worlds.

 

A fish in the water catches a musical note coming from a child playing a violin on a bench beside the water. In their watery and terrestrial worlds of rose taupe hues with minimal splashes of pale teal, the two are together but separate.

From Sonata for Fish and Boy by Milan Pavlović

When the child puts down his violin and lays down on the bench to sleep, the fish catapults itself out of the water and hovering around the child, draws him into the air to journey from the darkness to the colours of new worlds. In a city of buildings and a tall red poppy, the boy and fish witness the liveliness of a community playing, dancing, singing and listening to music. Bold reds and pinks, orange and blues, green and purples create a glowing landscape of song and energy.

From Sonata for Fish and Boy by Milan Pavlović

Then they continue to travel through flocks of singing and mesmerized birds to the planets, bouncing from one to another as the music accompanies them. Next they enjoy a crossing through a park with people flying balloons, children eating ice cream, and a musician playing a concertina. Finally a trip through a field of giant dandelions leads the boy and fish to a cottage where an orchestra of animals plays with relish, before leading them into a storm that tosses both in its darkness.

From Sonata for Fish and Boy by Milan Pavlović

In the end, an old man discovers his violin at the bench from the story's beginning and, playing it once again, is reunited with his piscine friend.

Artist Milan Pavlović needs no words to tell this story of the transformative nature of music, how it enriches our lives and moves us through and to places hitherto unknown. I know that Milan Pavlović has embedded clues to several important pieces of music such as Gustav Holst's "The Planets", Camille Saint-Saëns's "The Carnival of the Animals", and Bohuslav Martinů's "The Romance of the Dandelions", but I challenge young readers, especially music students, and the adults in their lives to discover the Easter eggs that may hint at other important classical works. (The park scene with the balloons stumped me completely.) 

From Sonata for Fish and Boy by Milan Pavlović

With sound conveyed in the colours and shapes, Milan Pavlović allows the movements of this sonata to carry readers through quiet reveries and joyous exuberance, imaginative frolics, and tempestuous storms (perhaps Tchaikovsky's "The Tempest"). This sonata may have started for a child soloist but it becomes one for a duo of friends, taking them through time and place, and bringing new joys into their lives, just as music has always done.