HOLD ON TO YOUR MUSIC

The Children of Willesden Lane (2003), Golabek and Cohen’s story of Golabek’s mother’s life as a young Austrian refugee in London during World War II, is adapted (for the third time) for a picture-book audience.

In this picture-book biography, Lisa Jura, a young Viennese Jew, learns she cannot continue piano lessons due to the Anschluss. Her parents decide to send her on a Kindertransport to England, her mother urging her to “hold on to your music. It will be your best friend.” Upon her arrival in England, the book sends her immediately to the hostel on Willesden Lane, omitting the real-life Jura’s initial relocation in the country. The arc of the rest of the story, with Lisa auditioning for a place at the Royal Academy of Music with support from her hostel friends and a successful debut after the war ends, is largely similar to that told in the books for older readers, but the abundant, unsourced dialogue and detail changes make this telling suspect. Her two sisters are both alive and heartwarmingly present at her London debut in Lisa of Willesden Lane (2021), the chapter-book version of the story, but they don’t exist in this book outside of a family photo accompanying an aftermatter note from Golabek. The soft-edged illustrations ably complement this text, although Lisa—depicted with pale skin amid an apparently all-White cast—does not seem to age until her piano debut takes place after the war’s end. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 42.1% of actual size.)

The story is both poignant and meaningful, but the simplification does the audience a disservice.