When Rubin Plays

Written and illustrated by Gracey Zhang

Orchard Books (Scholastic)

978-1-338-64826-3

56 pp.

Ages 4-8

July 2023

 

In a small town by a rain forest, there is an orchestra. Rubin's sister Isabel plays in this orchestra, and Rubin would listen through the open windows of their rehearsal space. The music is inspirational and uplifts Rubin. When he asks the maestro if he can play too, Rubin is handed a violin. But the sounds that come out of it when Rubin plays are screechy and howly, and the other young musicians snicker.

From When Rubin Plays by Gracey Zhang

Rubin is instructed by the maestro to practise so that he might be able to play with the rest of the orchestra. First the boy practises quietly at the back of the room. Then, when everyone leaves, he takes himself deep into the forest to practise. Still his violin is "shrill and uneven." But soon he is surrounded by cats who follow his playing, replying to his music with their own howling. 

Back and forth they went, their sounds a leaping crescendo deep into the night.

From When Rubin Plays by Gracey Zhang

When he returns next to the practice room, the young musicians offer Rubin some tips and he continues to play at the back of the room.  But at night, he plays with passion for his feline audience who perform their own music.

When the orchestra gives a concert, Rubin joins them, though he plays "too quietly, too small." But when Isabel encourages him to play, he does so, and an unexpected feline display of sound and dance brings the human audience to their feet. In a musical merger of orchestra, audience, cats and Rubin, harmony and connection are achieved.

From When Rubin Plays by Gracey Zhang

Author-illustrator Gracey Zhang based her story on an image that she had of a boy playing a violin to cats. Learning of a centuries-old history of baroque classical music in small Bolivian towns, Gracey Zhang blended the two into When Rubin Plays. Her story melds the richness that music brings to a child and to a community of both humans and felines while focussing on the passion of a young boy for learning an instrument. Rubin's music might need some refinement but his determination to play, even when only cats are his audience, is paramount. Ultimately, his persistence elevates his playing to connect the boy with the rest of the orchestra and with his audiences, as well as enabling his audiences to connect with each other.

The interactions of child with the music as well as for his listeners is dynamic, and Gracey Zhang's illustrations, primarily ink and paint, lend movement to that dynamism. There's the sounds of the violin playing and the cats' responses to the music that are full of life, but then Gracey Zhang also gives everything the colour of vitality. There is an energy to the musicians, to the people, to the animals that supersedes any skill or lack thereof, and it comes through in the brightness of colours in the clothing and the diversity of felines. When Rubin Plays is a book of life and connection to music and others.

Whether Rubin plays for the cats, with the orchestra, for an audience of people, or for the joy it brings him, there is passion. It's the enthusiasm that comes with finding something that touches you. Rubin's music, whether screechy or melodic, is always full of passion and reminds us all to follow our hearts, even when others may see, or hear, it differently.