What I really loved about the illustrations were the surreal drawings that cross each page, such as how some pages contain sound wave lines to represent the sounds coming from various instruments, as I am a huge fan of surreal art, I mean surreal art is pretty impressive since you would never see anything else like them! I also loved how some of the characters appeared as silhouettes on a couple of pages and I also loved the beautiful effect that the images that have glitter on them bring to the story. Oh my goodness, I have never seen such gorgeous illustrations as Rachel Isadora has presented in this book! Rachel Isadora has done an excellent job at making the illustrations extremely dramatic and creative as the illustrations are mainly in black and white colors, which truly brings out the beauty of the story and I also loved the way that all the characters look so realistic as their expressions are truly effective, especially Ben’s sadden face when the other boys made fun of him for playing his imaginary trumpet. Ben watches all the musicians practice playing their music, but the musician he is most interested in is the trumpeter! This story is about a young boy named Ben who sits outside on the fire escape and listen to the music from the Zig Zag Jazz Club and he plays his imaginary trumpet. “Ben’s Trumpet” may have gorgeous illustrations, but the story might not be enough to attract the attention of younger children. “Ben’s Trumpet” is a Caldecott Honor Book by Rachel Isadora and it details about a young boy’s interest in playing the trumpet after he sees a popular musician playing his trumpet.

I was reading this book for the Goodreads Picture Book Club for the theme of music.

I’d already read two of the books, have three at home to read (including this one), and for the first time cannot get one of the books, in this case the book designated as an alternate book, which is too bad because it looks fabulous. This book is one of the six books (five books and an alternate) chosen by the Pictures Books Club over at the Children's Books group for its March theme of music. What a lovely story! Much is told in relatively few words.

But, because of that, how this story evolves, I found even more emotionally rich when I finally did understand. I wasn’t sufficiently observant about what the pictures were telling me. However, and I’m embarrassed to admit this, I didn’t read the cues about what was going on re Ben’s trumpet. I love when the illustrations bleed out of their area. A lot of 20s slang and mood is at the forefront, which I enjoyed, but as I read I wasn’t sure young children would. It’s basically a historical fiction very short picture book story.

Ben's Trumpet by Rachel Isadora