ALA Booklist (Thu Dec 28 00:00:00 CST 2023)

When a girl hears her neighbor play a single note on the flute, she responds with a chime on her triangle. "Two notes twirl and / now there are three." The third is a man who has stepped out onto his balcony and now plays his violin. Another child adds her drum beats to the whole, and other neighbors enrich the sound with their own musical instruments from India: "A ghatam beats; / a morsing zings. / Eight notes meet; / nine notes sing." People add their voices to the throng as the music reaches a crescendo and then gradually subsides as evening comes and instruments are put away. Gopal, a kindergarten teacher, offers a pleasant, rhyming text that features numbers counting up to 10 and then back down to 1 as night falls. The warm, colorful artwork depicts a diverse group of urban apartment dwellers, young and old, who are clearly enjoying their shared musical experience. Reminiscent of spontaneous musical happenings during the pandemic, this picture book could inspire young children to create their own.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Gopal and Sanchez celebrate impromptu community-making through music: "One sweet song / for heart and soul. / One sweet song / to make us whole." In a scene recalling balcony performances in places like New York City during the COVID-19 shutdown, someone plays the flute by an open window; a girl listening from the building across the way chimes in with a triangle. This, in turn, spurs a third musician, then a fourth, and so on. More join in with everything from cello, violin, ghatam, and morsing to unconventional instruments that will cause audiences to giggle (pots and pans, bottles filled with dried beans, singing into a remote control "microphone," and even a horn made of a funnel and tube). The rhyming, rhythmic text counts up to ten participants and back down to one, first animating readers and then bringing them back to a quieter, peaceful state that gives this book a dual function as a bedtime story. Colorful painted and digital illustrations show individual lines, an almost scribbly texture, and imperfectly drawn shapes, all of which make the pictures buzz with energy and movement. Even if they didn't personally experience these types of balcony performances, readers will understand the way music-making can bring people together.

Kirkus Reviews

In this tale inspired by the Italian performers who serenaded their neighbors from their balconies during the Covid-19 lockdown, a single musical note leads to a neighborhood symphony.A young tan-skinned girl looks out her window and hears a neighbor play the flute ("One note trills…"). The child steps onto her balcony, chiming her triangle ("One note trills and / now there are two"), which inspires another neighbor to play the violin. Slowly, others join in from their balconies and open windows. A light-skinned neighbor plays a cello, while a South Asian family plays the ghatam and the morsing. A Black family bangs on African drums; a light-skinned neighbor bangs on a pot; several residents create makeshift instruments with remote controls or plastic bottles. The music builds, dips, rises, then slows and becomes silent. As the notes increase, the rhyming text counts to 10 and back down again as the music and voices merge to create a song that celebrates a spontaneous moment of community. The bright illustrations show swirls of colors and musical notes weaving in and out of the homes, suggesting a sense of connection. The residents are racially diverse, including Black and brown people of various shades. Though most are dressed in casual clothing-T-shirts, bathrobes-the South Asian family wears more formal regalia.A joyful celebration of music and community. (Picture book. 3-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Propulsive rhymes unite neighbors in this counting picture book featuring a collaborative musical performance that expands and contracts. Across an architecturally varied city, apartment dwellers of various skin tones spend time within their homes. Hearing one note “floating in the air”—a flute played from a nearby balcony—a child seizes a musical triangle, dashes out to her own balcony, and “rings a chime,/ soft and true./ One note trills, and/ now there are two.” As the people and instruments (a violin, a pot and spoon, a ghatam, and a morsing, among others) join in the count and the music-making, faces lift to “one sweet song/ that fills the space,/ one sweet song,/ a warm embrace”—before slowly counting down to quiet. Driving rhythms and clear rhymes by Rajan Gopal (American Desi) tug with a gentle beat, while energetic illustrations from Sanchez (Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away) render a sun-washed cityscape with texture and vigorous scribbles in this work about how individuals retain the warmth and support of connection. Ages 3–5. Author’s agent: Wendi Gu, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. Illustrator’s agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Bookmark Literary. (Jan.)