Very entertaining. The target audience is probably around 6-9 year olds, as younger children would not understand it (they might enjoy the music though). The CD contains a recording of Lemony Snicket himself reading the book, along with brief interludes of music connected to the story, which lasts around 30 minutes. The other half is the classical music without narration. Some elements of the story may need to be explained to very young children (it is Lemony Snicket, after all) since he uses figurative language and lots of puns. ( )

This is right up there with A Young Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra and Peter and the Wolf, as an introduction to orchestras. I laughed out loud on nearly every page. So fun. ( )

If you've ever played in an orchestra (or studied orchestra music at length) you'll love this book. I loved this book and I haven't played in an orchestra since Jr. High school. I didn't have the time to listen to the music/ cd though. And I wish the audience had been involved. ( )

This book is sweet and could be fun to read in a music class, but i don't see a place for it in a general education classroom. There is no moral and I can not even understand what the ending means or could mean for the reader. It contains beautiful pictures, information about music and instruments. The coolest part about this book is the CD that comes with it and has different musical pieces that the book covers. I would not read or recommend this book to other teachers or educators in a school. I think it is far too confusing, ( )

The composer is dead, and the Inspector is determined to find the guilty party in this hilariously clever look at the symphony, and the world of classical music performance. As he interviews each of the instruments, or orchestral sections, he discovers that everybody has a plausible alibi. But the composer is definitely dead, so someone must have killed him...

With tongue firmly in cheek, popular children's author Lemony Snicket offers an entertaining picture-book tribute to the murder mystery genre, as well as to the glories of classical music, in The Composer Is Dead. With lots of clever puns and plays on words, as well as his signature word definitions, Snicket crafts a book that is as thought-provoking as it is hilarious. Carson Ellis, who won a Caldecott Honor earlier this year (2017) for Di Iz Tak?, provides the artwork, which captures the madcap sense of humor found in the text to perfection. There is original music to accompany this tale, composed by Nathaniel Stookey, but unfortunately, I was not able to listen to it. Even without that experience, I enjoyed this one immensely, and would highly recommend it to all Lemony Snicket fans, and to anyone searching for picture-books about the symphony, or the world of music. ( )