Esquivel! Space Age Sound Artist by S. Wood

Abstract

Wood, Susan. Esquivel! Space Age Sound Artist, illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh. Charlesbridge, 2016.This is a picture book that tells the story of Mexican composer, band leader and pianist, Juan Garcia Esquivel. “Esquivel!”, as he came to be known, came from a poor family and became a very popular and wealthy composer. He was a pioneer in sound art in the 1950s and 1960s, influencing many later composers of experimental music and sound art. The text is quite ordinary, factual material about the artist, with the exception of words representing sounds. These are often in bright colours, many shapes and sizes and different typefaces. The differing scripts sometimes make reading the sentences difficult. Some of the words and concepts are too high level for a picture book and most children at the picture book reading stage will not understand strange, weird and edgy music, so it is likely that this book will be most useful to older children. The artwork is the most interesting part of the book. The images are all done in black-line, with colour fill being photographs of textures or patterns. The other unusual part of the work is that Duncan Tonatiuh has drawn people in the style of ancient Mexican art, specifically the Mixtec codex. Because this art predates the concept of perspective, all of the images are two dimensional and do not have depth. Also all of the faces are drawn in the style of the ancient artworks. The faces are all in profile with ears shaped like the number 3, pointy mouths and very flat forehead to nose profiles. These sorts of details, while interesting to adults, will be lost on small children.The music message of this book is historical, highlighting Esquivel!’s early contributions to sound art. The work also makes the point that Esquivel! had no formal musical training, showing that music is for everyone. Because there is little written about this Esquivel! at a children’s reading level this book should be bought for public libraries and school libraries.Highly Recommended: 3 stars out of 4Reviewer: Sean BorleSean Borle is a University of Alberta undergraduate student who is an advocate for child health and safety.