The Story Orchestra: Four Seasons in One Day

Fantastic book for the grandkids. Creative storyline and characters but bring able to play music along the way in the story is AMAZING. Great find very pleased. High quality book!

This is exactly what I was looking for — such a brilliant way to introduce classical composers to kids. The concept is so well executed: a beautifully illustrated story that engages children, paired with age-appropriate vocabulary and real biographical info about Vivaldi. The music buttons are a huge hit — the sound is clear, easy for little hands to operate, and adds so much to the experience. The artwork is honestly stunning, and my kids were absolutely captivated. Vivaldi is now a household name around here! Highly recommend for ages 2–12 — this whole series is a treasure.

This is an absolutely beautiful book and a wonderful introduction to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. There "plot" essentially follows a girl through a day in her village during which she experiences all of the different seasons, each accompanied by excerpts from the corresponding movements of Vivaldi's concerti. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful and the musical excerpts actually sound quite good -- not an audiophile experience by any means, but not as tinny or annoying as I expected. Everything about the book seems high quality: the pages have a nice heft and texture to them, the illustrations have bright vivid colors, and the binding is strong and sturdy. It's almost a piece of art. My only small complaint is that the buttons which trigger the music can be difficult to push, especially for small fingers. The circuit board is contained within the back cover of the book, so activating the sounds sometimes requires transmitting the pressure through 8-10 pages of the book, which is not easy for 18-month-old fingers! I suspect the only other option would be to have buttons contained in each page, which would obviously make the entire book much thicker. The bottom line, though, is that my daughter loves this gorgeous book and wants to read it several times a day, and that makes ME happy!

Gave to a 3 year old boy for his birthday. He LOVED pushing the buttons and listening to the beautiful music as he was read the story and enjoyed the pictures. Great way to enjoy the seasons and classical music.

I bought all of these books, and I am leaving this same review on all of them. My two-year-old loves them! The music is very clear as long as you hold the book upright, and, to be honest, I am surprised by how clear it is even when it's laying down. The illustrations are beautiful, and there are so many things to look at on each page! For instance, in the Four Seasons book, there are easter eggs in spring, and on one page in another book, there is a tiny spider. I could talk to my toddler about one page for five minutes easily because there is so much to look at. In some of the books, there are some thoughtful illustrations to demonstrate the instruments being played. In the Carnival of Animals book, there is a bunny playing a flute, for instance, when there is music that is mostly played by flutes. Also my toddler is able to press the buttons. It is a little hard, but he manages it okay. Well worth the price tag!

I bought this for my 3-year-old daughter who loves Welcome to the Symphony: A Musical Exploration of the Orchestra Using Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 . She loves classical music, and being able to make it play by herself is awesome. Unlike Welcome to the Symphony, however, the buttons aren't really buttons. Rather, there's a round circle printed on each spread that you are supposed to push. Unfortunately, this mechanism isn't the best for little readers. If the page is just off or you're holding the book on your lap just so, it's impossible to get the music to play. It's a major problem for my daughter who wants to "do it myself." We've worked out a way to do it together, but sometimes I even struggle to make it play. If you can get past the tricky "button," The Story Orchestra really is worth buying. The story is charming and the illustrations are beautiful. Each spread is intricate and perfectly paired with movements from the Four Seasons. The music clips, too, are lovely. We can spend 20 minutes with just this one book.

Beautiful book and very good quality. My toddler loves this!

If you have a child or grandchild displaying an interest in music or loves to read , these books are made to order! Well done👏

I thought it might be a bit cutesy, but as a Vivaldi fan myself I bought it anyhow for my grand-daughters aged 8 & 11. They loved it! Vied with each other to play their favourite sound clips to me, & couldn't wait for me to download the whole of the Four Seasons onto the computer in their house. As a magical way of introducing children to great music, this could hardly be bettered, & I wait impatiently for the next items in the series.

I purchased this for my daughter few years ago actually and I am also buying it as a gift. I would like to own all the books from this author as a classical music lover, I love my children to learn about classical music. This is such a beautiful book, I can’t even describe how much I love it. Beautiful illustrations and music in it is just so cute and calming before bedtime. It’s not just a book, it’s a very special book, a beautiful gift for any child.

Fast delivery well packed

Beautiful book...wish the tunes were a bit more than 10 seconds. But great introduction to Vivaldi for kids 👍🏻👍🏻🎶

Sometimes the music suddenly cuts out after a few seconds of playing. They failed to provide logical little piece of music. I feel a strong sense of dissatisfaction from this 😕