Satie was a French composer kooky enough to seem totally made up (but I checked and he's real). This is a great light biography that might interest K-3 graders who are a little whacky themselves, particularly if they're into music and/or able to appreciate really great writing. ( )

This book was a great read. I have never heard of Eric Satie, so I was interested in this book. Mr. Satie was indeed strange, and he made strange music. Mr. Satie did not fit in with the other ordinary men in Paris, but that was okay. Mr. Satie made music that was happy and sad, and sometimes it was difficult to interpret his music, but that is what makes it his. When Mr. Satie died, several musicians attended his funeral, and even his funeral was happy and sad, just like his music. ( )

Strange Mr. Satie was a very comical biography of a French Composer. I loved reading this book because it made me realize many difficulties people face in life. The book portrays Mr. Staie as a young scholar pursuing his passion, music, then he soon drops out. Mr. Satie was teased and criticized because he had a unique style when it came to music that nobody has ever heard. Mr. Satie later decided to enroll in college again so that he can fully learn music and then graduates.This book shows the readers that everyone is different and a lot of people make fun of you because you're different. Yet one should never give up their passions because others criticize them for being unique. ( )

Mr. Satie was an eccentric man that never really saw the world in the same way as most people. He made music that seemed sad and happy at the same time and plays no one could wrap their head around. He seemed so childish but always was very mean to most people, he didn't like that people didn't like his music. He did incredible interesting things, like falling in love with a young lady Suzanne Valadon, and tagging himself along or her and her boyfriend's dates without hesitation. But eventually his anger got the best of him and he ended up losing his friends altogether. Later in life he decided he wanted to live a normal life so he decided it was time to finish his degree and do things like wear bowler hats and nice suits. But nothing can keep Mr. Satie from being the man he has always been, and that is "Mr. Satie". Although some people may find this book a little too weird, I found it to be almost magical and kept me wanted to know more about him. ( )

The progression of music through time has taken the listener from primitive drums to the Gregorian Chant and from there to the centuries of great classical music from artists such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Handel. But at the end of the 1800s when Erik Satie began to compose and play his music, it was seen and heard and absurd, loud, ridiculous, and strange.

Erik Satie himself was a bit of an oddity in that he didn't like the ways things were - rules for how music should be, rules for behavior in school, rules for romance, rules for how to dress. He was at odds even with the French avant-garde community of those days.

My three girls took years of piano lessons and studied music on into college. I don't recall their playing any of Satie's compositions though they did play twentieth century composers. So to see just who Erik Satie was and what his music was all about that was so absurd and disruptive, I looked him up and found a plethora of listings online of his music.

Now about this children's biography Strange Mr. Satie: Composer of the Absurd. I have reviewed another of M.T.Anderson's biographies - Handle and found that he and the illustrators do a magnificent job of presenting these people to the young child. They make it interesting, fun, and informative. And they make the Mommy or Teacher want to research further into the life of the individual and his work.

The quirky life and absurdity of Satie is well captured by Petra Mathers illustrations. The cover illustration of a Satie seated at a grand piano with a jumble of stuff emanating from the sound board interior of the piano is spot on to represent the mixture of sounds Satie incorporated into his music.

The author M.T.Anderson tells the story of Satie's sad and troubled life with an easy style in short lines of prose. He helps the reader garner a bit of an understanding that this troubled man who had a wealth of music stored inside him that was trying to be released and the difficulties he had in coping with the realities of his day.

A terrific children's biography and perhaps it could lead to a study of music styles and troubled artists.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from Candlewick Press to facilitate this review. Opinions are solely my own. I was not compensated for the review. ( )