The Remarkable Farkle McBride

Reviewed: September 24, 2007
By: poem by John Lithgow / illustrated by C.F. Payne
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
40 pages, $10.99

Farkle McBride is a musical wonder child who masters and discards instruments from every section of the orchestra between the ages of 3 and 10, driving his parents to distraction until he finds his true calling as - oh, come on, you can guess how this one turns out, can’t you?

Seldom does a 40 page picture book cover so much ground in terms of time, but this one seems to work quite well and the direction the story is going to take is clear from the outset.

Oh, pity the prodigy, Farkle McBride!

No matter what instrument poor Farkle tried,

Whether strumming,

or blowing,

or drumming,

or bowing,

His musical passions were unsatisfied.

John Lithgow is best known as an actor, of course, and perhaps known best of all for his five years playing Dick Solomon, leader of an alien expedition posing as human beings in the hilarious sitcom, Third Rock from the Sun.

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