Berlin resident, award-winning author, and teaching cellist Melissa Perley has a new children\u2019s book to share with young audiences and she plans a musical book launch in Montpelier on Saturday, Oct. 4.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perley\u2019s latest picture-book title, \u201cThe Violin Family Plays New Music,\u201d was released Sept. 9 by Rootstock Publishing. It\u2019s Perley\u2019s second picture book, with illustrations by freelance illustrator and western Massachusetts native Tim Knickerbocker, now residing in Tampa, Florida.<\/p>\n
Perley is a professional performing and teaching cellist and a sheep farmer. She lives in Berlin with her luthier husband Paul. Her first picture book, \u201cThe Violin Family,\u201d was published in 2019 and won the 2021 Indie Readers Discovery Award for children\u2019s early to intermediate readers.<\/p>\n
The latest story introduces a new instrument character to the Violin Family. On a snowy day, Celia Violoncello meets her neighbor, Clarence Clarinet, a woodwind who looks and sounds different from her string family. They spend time making music, but Celia\u2019s family doesn\u2019t approve of her new friend who looks nothing like a violin and doesn\u2019t even have strings. But when the family hears Celia and Clarence play together and harmonize, they change their minds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCelia has the ability to recognize a friend, regardless of differences, and to persevere despite her family\u2019s disapproval,\u201d Perley said. \u201cMusic is the bridge. That\u2019s the hope I have for my young readers, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n