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Oliver, Carmen

Building an Orchestra of Hope: How Favio Chavez Taught Children to Make Music from Trash

48 pp. | Eerdmans | October, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-0-80285-467-4 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-46746-590-8 $18.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Luisa Uribe. Cateura, Paraguay: a town built on a landfill. Families survive by working as gancheros digging through mountains of trash in hopes of finding recyclable cardboard, plastic, and metal to resell. From this town, with the help in 2006 of Favio Chávez, an environmental engineer who was also a musician, comes a children's orchestra using instruments made from the trash their homes are built upon: "oven trays, old drain pipes, door keys, metal forks and spoons, X-ray films, bottle caps, glue canisters, plastic buttons, paint canns." While Oliver's text centers Chávez (an outsider who is set up as a bit of a savior in the narrative), the artwork effectively positions the children of Cateura as the emotional focus of the story. Uribe's digital art is warm and inviting; ­ever-present sunshine seems to flood the outdoor setting, highlighting the musicians and their remarkable instruments. "'The world sends us garbage,' Favio says. 'We send back music.'" An inspiring picture book that demonstrates how environmentalism and the arts can unite to bring joy to an entire community. Back matter includes further details about Chávez and the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura as well as a bibliography that helpfully includes links to videos where readers can see and hear the orchestra perform.
Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

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