Pythagoras by T. Katz

• 01/15/2014
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Pythagoras
T. Katz
Windstorm Creative (2008)
ISBN 9781590924969
Reviewed by Ben Weldon (age 10) for Reader Views (12/08)

“Pythagoras” by T. Katz is the story of Priscilla, a girl who hates practicing the piano.  When a sticky “A” key gets stuck Priscilla meets Pythagoras, a ghost that teaches her many new things about the piano and music.  Will Pythagoras be able to teach Priscilla the joy of music?

Priscilla is unhappy about having to practice piano especially when she hears a bunch of kids playing games and having fun outside.  She is upset about her mother “forcing” her to play a sonatina.

One day, while Priscilla was struggling through her piano practice, a swirling, multi-color cloud emerged from the “A” key.  It melted away to show a ghostly man in a tuxedo, Pythagoras.  Pythagoras explained many fancy musical terms such as adagio and allegro.  He also explained that an “A” note generates 440 vibrations per second (but that sometimes in Europe they tune an “A” to only about 435 vibrations per second).  He described how music and math were related.  After Pythagoras left, Priscilla thought about what she had learned.  She even went out to the driveway and with sidewalk chalk drew a piece of music that she was learning.

I would recommend “Pythagoras” by T. Katz to people who are interested in music.  The book was a bit slow and the plot weak, but there was a lot of music theory and some interesting facts about music.