I read this to my children and they really enjoyed it. The illustrations were well drawn and made the story come alive. Highly recommend.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A beautiful book. Loved the illustrations and the story. Just a gorgeous book.

The Piano Recital is a beautifully illustrated tale with which many children will relate. The imaginative story follows Momo as she stands in the wings awaiting her turn to play the piano on stage. Through the mouse’s fears, Mom is able to deal with her own and overcome her stage fright. The text is simple, allowing the reader to study the gorgeous illustrations. While this is not a complicated story, the story and art will resonate with young readers.

*received from netgalley for honest review* I LOVE the art in this book! This book is so cute and if you like the mouse circus in Coraline you will love the art in this book! The story is pretty simple imo but art more than makes up for it and the story is still cute.

This story deals with an issue that all children deal with sometime during their life, anxiety. Momo is a small girl dressed in a beautiful dress, awaiting her turn to play at the recital. She is very scared and anxious until she meets a little mouse also scared about singing at her recital. Momo goes with her to the mouse concert hall and assures the mouseling that she will play for her while she sings. When the song is over, Momo looks up and realizes she has just played at her own recital. This is a cute story about facing your anxiety, using your imagination to get over your nerves and overcoming your fear. The illustrations are wonderful. When at the mouse concert hall, there is so much going on that my grandson kept asking me to turn back so he could look at that page some more. I enjoy the illustrations which are a lot of black and white with splashes of colour, such as Momo’s dress, except when in the mouse world, which is part of Momo’s imagination, it is full of colour. This would make a great story for those who suffer performance anxiety, those with a good imagination, or anyone who just wants a fun, imaginative story.

I enchanting story of a little girl who is about to perform her first piano recital, when she is whisked away by a mousling into a magical part of the concert hall. In this section of the hall mice are performing all different types of things and Momo gets to watch. What will she see next and what experiences will she have? Finally, will she overcome her fear of performing for an audience?
#Netgalley

I received this ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a music teacher, I really wanted to likes this book. I had hoped for one that would be a great starting point for a discussion about being nervous when you perform. Unfortunately, this was a little too far fetched, and though Momo overcame her nerves, she never really dealt with them and the story fell flat for me.

In this, my fourth book from Akiko Miyakoshi, Momo is nervously awaiting her turn at the piano recital. Preparation and praise don’t take this feeling away. And then a tiny backstage visitor invites her to the mouseling concert going on just through this wee crack in the wall. And then all becomes wonderful as Momo enjoys others having joy in performance of all types. In the end, these mouse-world distractions do their job well and Momo is ready for her recital.

As in her past books, the art work is beautiful and a meaningful part of the story. Unlike past books, there is a more liberal use of color, especially in the mouse world. Momo herself is easily found on a page in her red dress among a wash of shades of gray and black. This I think of as a Miyakoshi trademark, a swirl of red in a white and black and gray picture. The scenes of the mouse performance, including pictures of the seated audience, includes a wider breadth of color than Momo’s world. I wonder...does this reflect the power of the world of the imagination? But there is no need to wonder, only to enjoy this book with a child you know. And you will. And I recommend Miyakoshi’s other books too which I have reviewed previously.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Such a lovely book! My mom is a piano teacher. She organized many recitals throughout the years with her students. I wish I had this book back then, to read it to the anxious little artists! The mice make mistakes during their show, but it goes on. They even make the audience laugh about it. So there is no need to worry! Just perform, don't worry about perfection! I love this message sent to children! Some adults could benefit from it, too!
The author's simple illustrations warmly complement the story.
Thank you to Net Galley and Kids Can Press for providing me with an e-book copy in exchange for my honest review!

The Piano Recital by Akiko Miyakoshi – Now this book was originally published in 1982 in Tokyo, Japan but was just recently translated into English. I am so glad that this treasure is being rereleased! The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and the story is sweet, this is the perfect gift for a child who is having a recital. Momo in the story is having a piano recital, but this would be a great gift for any type of performance. This translation was released September 3, 2019.

http://seventhingstosay.blog/2019/09/11/7seven-new-pictures-books-in-2019-2020/

The Piano Recital by Akiko Miyakoshi is a beautifully rendered tale of finding strength in the power of imagination and wonder. Brought to life through glorious illustrations, this book is simply charm personified.

Young Momo is awaiting her turn to perform at the piano recital. As she struggles with her nerves, a mouseling appears, and invites Momo to join the mice in their very own performance of song, dance, and acrobatics. Momo, and certainly the reader, are enchanted by the spectacle and, while accompanying one of the mice on the piano, Momo becomes aware that she has unknowingly completed her own recital without fear.

This is a thoroughly delightful book with a message that is truly universal. The imagination is a powerful tool, and should always be fostered, at any age. I would recommend this book most highly.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for this ARC.

A charming picture story with imagination and the addressing of a common childhood ailment: stage-fright. As a mom of 3 children all taking various music lessons, I’ve had to understand how differently performing affects each of them. For those children who get nervous or truly afraid, I like how this story confronts that on two fronts. Miyakoshi first shows the imagination as a tool to distract from a fear and even make it fun; but more so, with Momo helping the mousling with her OWN fear, she shows hows taking our minds off of ourselves in order to help others can really help to conquer fear. (Parents might notice how this parallels ways in which we help children with homesickness when at camp or school - give them a way to help another kid.)

The illustrations were also moderately delightful. I appreciated several of the two page spreads with no text where children are given the opportunity to continue the story with their own imaginations.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review, All opinions are entirely my own.

4.5★
“The recital has started.
Momo’s heart is racing.
I’ll be okay … I’ll be okay.
She holds on tightly to her sheet music.”

Little Momo is terrified of her very first piano recital. She's one of the smallest children waiting her turn to play. We can just see her behind the curtains behind the piano.

[My Goodreads review includes an illustration captioned: The teacher smiles and encourages the children.]

Momo watches nervously from the wings, telling herself she’ll be okay.

[My Goodreads review includes an illustration captioned: Momo hides behind the curtains.]

Momo hears a voice and looks down to see a little mouseling, who tells her there is another recital in another hall.

[My Goodreads review includes an illustration captioned: A mouseling invites Momo to their mouse recital.]

They crawl through a tiny door into another recital hall full of mice, all dressed up to watch a concert. There are mice dancing and singing and performing tricks and magic acts. Momo hears the mouseling worry about whether she will do well singing.

[My Goodreads review includes an illustration captioned: Momo counsels the mouseling.]

“‘You’ll be okay,’ Momo reassures her. ‘I’ll go with you onstage.’
The mouseling’s face lights up. Momo’s own racing heart and worries are long forgotten.”


[My Goodreads review includes an illustration captioned: Momo plays the piano while the mouseling sings.]

To her surprise, when Momo looks up after playing, she is in the real recital hall in front of the real audience!

[My Goodreads review includes an illustration captioned: Momo sees the real people applauding her performance!]

She’s sure she can hear the mice clapping too!

What a delicious little story! The illustrations are wispy and dreamy with hints of colour here and there. Momo’s dress is distinctively red, while some of the clothing on the mice has light washes of aqua and pink. The action in the mouse recital is lively and vibrant, and it’s easy to see how a little girl’s imagination has taken over to conquer her nerves.

Children will have fun pointing out and talking about the various mice performing acrobatics and dancing. And they can see the different expressions on Momo’s face as she relaxes while helping someone else overcome their fears.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for the preview copy from which I’ve copied just a few pictures to give you a taste of the style.

A cute little story about Momo and her first piano recital. Momo is nervous for her first recital, but she imagines she's performing with a tiny mouse who is also nervous, and that makes her feel better. I loved the selective color in the early illustrations, and how isolating it was, but wasn't overly impressed with the story itself.

An enchanting story about a little girl preparing for her piano recital. As Momo waits for her big debut, she can’t help but become nervous. Suddenly, a little misuse appears encouraging her that she will be remarkable. The sweet mouse convinces Momo to follow her to her own mouse recital where Momo is entranced by the furry critter performances. She builds up the courage to perform with the mice, discovering she was performing her own recital instead. Lovely illustrations. 4 ⭐️

The illustrations in this book are truly remarkable. There is a mix of black, white and greys with color added to some pages for emphasis. These illustrations are sweet and appealing.

The Piano Recital is about Momo who is nervous about her first recital. In the magical way that occurs in children's literature, she is visited by a small mouse and invited to the mice's show. While there, Momo forgets to be nervous and goes on to a good recital.

This is a very sweet book that young children will enjoy. It may also help those who are feeling nervous before their own performances.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book in exchange for my honest review.

The art in this book is absolutely beautiful! I love how the book starts out in black and white except for Momo and over time more color gets added into each frame. And this story is a beautiful story about facing your fears with a little help from some sweet friends.

A very attractive and quite dreamy young reader, with a girl anxious about a solo piano recital she's done her best to rehearse for. While waiting in the wings, she gets invited to witness a mouse performance in a different part of the theatre, replete with mouse circus, mouse ballerina, and so on. Or does she? The art is wonderful, and shows that even predominant grey with a few splashes of colour can make for a warm image, and the story offers a strong narrative with just enough to make you think about what really happened to keep the book lingering in the mind. A strong four stars.

This is simply adorable! I first encountered this author's work in The Tea Party in the Woods. This book features a similar illustration style (although it's a little less creepy in spots), with lots of black-and-white drawings and touches of colour. In this story, Momo is preparing for her turn at the piano recital. She's very nervous. But someone else is nervous, too. She looks down and sees a mouse in a fancy dress who's preparing for her own recital. The mouse invites Momo to watch the murine performance, and to help her new friend, Momo offers to accompany her on the piano. At the end, we find out that Momo has actually been performing for the human audience, having used her imagination to overcome her anxiety.

I really like the pictures in this. The mouse theatre is especially charming, with all the dressed-up mice filling the seats. Perhaps understandably (given that it's in Momo's imagination), there's more colour in these scenes; in the "real world", the only pops of colour are Momo's red dress and her pink cheeks.

I enjoyed this book more than The Tea Party in the Woods, partly because of the relatable story, partly because of the illustrations. I'd recommend this one to those looking for books about performance anxiety, who enjoy talking-animal fantasies, or who simply want a good story.

What a sweet sweet book about little Momo, her first piano recital, and a kind mouseling who helps calm her nerves. The imaginative story entrances as the mouseling invites anxious Momo into a miniature world with a tiny theater, a fine audience of mice, and a stage filled with dancers, singers, and circus performers. Momo accompanies the singing mouseling, then finds as she stands for a bow that she’s actually just finished her real recital, her mind providing respite from fear through imagination. But oh what darling illustrations, the mice audience precious with some holding hands, others flowers, still others programs. Enchanting! 5/5

Pub Date 03 Sep 2019.

Thanks to Akiko Miyakoshi, Kids Can Press and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

#ThePianoRecital #NetGalley