A symphony soars in rhyming couplets. Music lover Greene has created a graceful poem to introduce young readers and listeners to all the sounds and sections of a symphony orchestra. She opens, as a concert would, with the entrance of the musicians, the tuning, and the appearance of the conductor. "Applause! A pause. / Then, instruments as one. // .all SING." (This particular page turn is particularly artful.

) The instruments are appropriately presented and grouped: first strings, then brass, woodwinds, double-reed instruments, percussion, and piano. Italicized musical terms like crescendo , glissando , allegro , and spiccato are gracefully woven into the verse, then defined in a short closing glossary. The poet's rhythm and rhyme also sing, her metaphors add richness, and alliteration makes these lines a delight to read aloud. "French horns, trumpets, tubas blow / with lips abuzzzz and great gusto!" One early misstep aside-the oboe's tuning A is usually much longer than a "chirp"-this is a well-pitched composition. Sanchez's gently humorous animation-style spreads suggest a 21st-century Fantasia with a chubby, White Toscanini-like conductor and a highly diverse set of instrumentalists whose playing moves the audience out of the concert hall and into a variety of settings. Even the endpapers support the theme with musical symbols and a golden trumpet. There are many other introductions-to-the-orchestra titles out there, but few have such charm. Pleasing to the eye and ear.

(Informational picture book. 4-8).