Tracy Newman (1)

Grade: 2-4
The story follows young Itzhak, a boy growing up in Israel, who falls in love with the violin despite facing challenges. Itzhak’s family does not have much money, but his passion for the violin is strong, and he is determined to learn.

This book would be good for upper elementary students. This book is a story about a little boy who loves the violin. His family is in poverty, but this does not ruin his dreams of one day being a violinist. He gets sick with polio and after surviving this deadly disease his parents work together to buy him his violin. I think that it would be good to teach about how set backs do not have to be the end of our story.

This book would be best for lower to middle elementary. It is about a boy who loved music and desperately wanted to play the violin. He got polio and had to relearn basic skills, yet he persevered and became a famous violinist. This book could be used to discuss polio or when talking about string instruments/classical music.

Yiddish Book Center

See also: The Noisy Paint Box: the colors and sounds of Kandinsky's abstract art by Barb Rosenstock; The Polio Pioneer by Linda Elovitz Marshall