Rosie is a young girl living on Avenue P in Brooklyn who possesses a theatrical imagination. She organizes her neighborhood friends—the Nutshell Kids—to audition for a musical film she is directing about her life. Using a green umbrella as a prop and donning her mother’s high heels, she commands Johnny, Pierre, Alligator, and Chicken Soup to perform various roles. The book serves as the libretto and music score for the animated special, featuring lyrics by Maurice Sendak and piano arrangements by Carole King that translate childhood behavior into catchy, rhyming songs.
Children and parents use this book to bridge the gap between reading and musical performance. It provides young readers with a template for self-expression and creative play, showing how ordinary city streets can become stages for high drama. Musicians and students of musical theater study the text to see how simple rhythmic structures can describe complex emotions like boredom or stubbornness. The reader walks away with a collection of singable stories that celebrate the loud, dramatic, and bossy instincts inherent in childhood development.
Practical and clear-cut; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Curious Generalist. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1975
- Language
- EN
