ALA Booklist (Mon Jun 05 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Based on a true story, Another Band's Treasure tells the tale of Diego, living in a small town in Paraguay, who completely changes the lives of local children by introducing them to music. With no school in town, the children's main source of entertainment is a garbage dump where they go to find hidden treasures. Diego, a musician by nature, has the brilliant idea to offer music lessons to the children. He believes music can keep them out of trouble and teach them valuable skills. The lessons are a hit, but unfortunately Diego does not have enough instruments to provide for the entire class. Enter Nicolas, a local handyman who takes on the challenge of crafting instruments made from common items found at the landfill. The students are amazed by the instruments and develop a passion for music that they carry throughout their lives. Xie's soft, sketchy artwork nicely captures the atmosphere of the town, and a pop of color for the first homemade instrument emphasizes how life changing it is. A truly inspiring tale, perfect for middle-grade readers.

Kirkus Reviews (Mon May 08 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In this graphic novel inspired by actual events, a love of music blossoms unexpectedly in a small Paraguayan village surrounded by garbage.What do the children do when their parents go to work? The village of Cateura has no school, so young people find other ways to fill their time. Frustrated at seeing some of the kids doing drugs, Mr. Diego, a local musician, decides to offer music lessons. The other adults are skeptical: "Music is for rich people!" Nevertheless, Mr. Diego posts flyers around town, welcoming anyone interested in learning. And many children appear, including siblings Daniel and Ada. As the class grows, Mr. Diego faces another issue: no money to buy instruments for all the students. Enter his carpenter friend Nicolas, who builds instruments out of pieces of scraps he finds at the dump (sometimes with help from the kids). Even the other adults begin to have hope in the music class. Soon, the mayor of the nearby capital of Asunción invites Mr. Diego's budding orchestra for a performance. Translated from French, this spare, slightly fictionalized account of the story of Favio Chávez and La Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados de Cateura is infused with optimism. The muted, sober artwork foregrounds the subtle environmental message, with small bursts of color appearing during a crucial scene. All in all, it's a story retold with evident admiration.A gentle reminder of music's might. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

School Library Journal (Mon May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Gr 3–6 —Daniel and his sister, Ada, live outside the capital of Paraguay, where the community processes the materials of the city's landfill. Villager Diego decides to teach music to the local children to fill their time, as there is no formal school. He and Nicolas, a carpenter, build instruments out of the discarded raw material around them for the students to play. Credited as "inspired by the story of Favio Chavez," whose "recycled orchestra" initiative was dramatized in Susan Hood and Sally Wern Comport's Ada's Violin and the documentary Landfill Harmonic , Xie's adaptation focuses on how music can inspire joy and bring people together. Her pages foreground a male perspective, and readers initially see the community declaim music as an extravagance. The emotive power of instrumental performance is gradually valorized in how it reduces competitiveness, bullying, and rewards a practical, mechanical mind. Readers unfamiliar with the true story may wonder why Ada's tin-can violin is the only thing to be rendered in color in the pen-and-ink illustrations, giving it a power that is never mirrored in Diego's uplifting performances or Nicholas's steel-drum guitar—despite the latter actually being referred to as "magic." And, considering that Daniel is positioned as the transformed hero who returns home at the finale, the prominent depiction of Ada's violin is more puzzling than moving. VERDICT Xie's sparse fabrication of real events never successfully achieves the admittedly difficult task of visually depicting how music can touch the spirit. Small human moments abound, but the story's attempts to portray more sweeping emotions fall short.—Benjamin Russell