THWISTLE PING!

An inventive lad with a wise teacher learns that there’s no such thing as being nonmusical.

In stumbling rhyme, Arnett tells the tale of Lennie Fling, who “recited poems in Latin and spoke fluent French. / He read Steinbeck and admired Dame Judi Dench,” but he couldn’t play music. Dismayed to learn that he must participate in a recital at school, Lennie visits “groovilicious” musician neighbor Floretta Flynn. She invites him to listen inside himself, and in no time he’s not only pounding out a funky beat on a bucket, but also constructing an elaborate music maker from pots and pans and other household items. This is where the narrative and pictures diverge, since visually, Lennie’s makeshift “Thwistle Ping” doesn’t incorporate the items actually mentioned and also looks different on different pages. Lennie goes on to help his diverse group of classmates make musical inventions of their own from common if sometimes unlikely components, but readers are left in the dark about how some suggested “instruments,” particularly a lamb chop or meat loaf, might actually be played. Lennie, his mom, and Floretta have skin the white of the page, while Lennie’s dad has light tan skin.

Sloppy and discordant.