This brief children's book presents the legends behind five well-known pieces of classical music, from Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé suite to Rossini's William Tell Overture. I picked it up at random, drawn in by the title, and was simply delighted to discover that it had a story devoted to the adventures of Hary Janos. Although Zoltán Kodály's Háry János Suite has long been one of my favorite pieces of music, I was ignorant of its history, and had no idea that it had been composed for a libretto, based upon János Garay's nineteenth-century poem, and was originally a comic opera.

I was glad to expand my knowledge of a work I love, and found the tale itself - in which an old hussar in the Austrian army brags of his incredible adventures involving his single-handed defeat of Napoleon - quite charming. Hosier includes a brief afterword, where he discusses Kodály's music, and indicates which movements the young listener might want to listen to with particular care. I was somewhat saddened to see that he recommended skipping the third movement (the "Lied"), as it has always been one of my favorites, but I suppose that it is possible that children might not care for it.

The other four stories were also quite amusing, each accompanied - like the Háry János selection - by a brief discussion of the music, and each inspiring in me a desire to find some recordings, and listen to these works again. From the satirical Lieutenant Kijé, in which a made-up guard has a glorious and full "life" (at least, in the mind of the Tsar), to the heroic William Tell, in which a simple Swiss hunter finds himself pushed into rebellion by the tyrannical cruelty of the Austrian governor Gessler, these stories are a double treat: worth reading for their own sake, they also offer a fascinating glimpse into the meaning behind the music.

The titular Sorcerer's Apprentice, which tells the classic tale of a disobedient and lazy apprentice who discovers that magic is easy to summon, but not so easy to control, is presented with a brief discussion of the French composer Paul Dukas' piece, L'apprenti sorcier, itself inspired by Goethe's 1797 poem Der Zauberlehrling. Also included is the story of Some Merry Pranks of Till Owlglass, whose tricks create havoc across middle Europe, and whose adventures are chronicled in Richard Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel.

All in all, this was an enjoyable little collection, and should prove quite informative for young classical music lovers. The black and white drawings by Bettina are a charming accompaniment. ( )