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[APRIL 3, 2002]  ^"Stained Glass." Michael Bedard. Tundra Books, 2001. Grade 7 and up.

This well-written story is totally about the lives of three characters — their past, present and future — but mostly their past. Bedard’s book is different from others I’ve recently read because it is the character development rather than plot development that grabs you and keeps you reading.

Charles had been hiding in St. Bartholomew church each Friday when he was supposed to be taking piano lessons. One day while hiding he witnessed the accidental breaking of one of the church’s stained-glass windows. When went to the window to help clean up the broken glass, he met a young girl who had apparently been sleeping on the floor under the window.

Unable to get the image of the girl out of his mind, Charles returned to the church the next morning to see if she was still there. The girl was there with her guitar but had no memory of her past. Charles thought he could help her remember if they walked around town. The first place they stopped was a restaurant. While there, Charles put money in the jukebox and chose an Elvis song, but an aria by Bach was heard on the speakers. The girl seemed to know the tune and played along on the guitar.

Another piece of her memory came back during a visit to the library. Charles chose a book of baby names and started to read the list. Ambriel was the name she chose. Unfortunately, in their haste to leave they accidentally took the book with them.

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As Charles and Ambriel walked all over town, up and down streets, through the parks and the glass-domed conservatory, Ambriel picked up pieces of broken glass as well as vague memories. In helping Ambriel jog her memory, Charles realized that places they visited and items seen also brought back pieces of his memory. He glimpsed an old book that was a favorite his older sister had read to him, saw handprints in the cement, smelled lilies and heard the sound of broken glass.

"Was there some sense to them, some pattern to the pieces?" he wondered. "…Did they tell a story like the stories in the stained glass at St. Bart’s?"

Just as Charles and Ambriel were piecing together memories, Mr. Berkely was trying to piece together the broken window before Sunday. As he worked he would look behind him, expecting to see someone standing there. "The sense of presence grew stronger as time passed and the glass came slowly together."

While working to repair the stained-glass window, George Berkely realized the extent of his grief and worked through it by using glass-making skills he hadn’t used since his wife’s death. Charles also began to work through the grief of his father’s death while visiting the areas of town with Ambriel.

In the end the reader is left to decide who Ambriel was and where she came from, and Charles recognized that all the events of his life were still present in memory and part of the pattern that made him who he was.

"Stained Glass" is a thought-provoking gem to be enjoyed by young adults and adults.

[Pat Schlough, Lincoln Public Library District]

• Lincoln Community Theatre

• Logan County Arts Association

[MARCH 14, 2002]  Boston Brass is, as they sound, a quintet of brass instrument players. The brass instruments themselves were numerous. They include a French horn, a trombone, a tuba and various trumpets (such as the tiny piccolo trumpet). The players’ costumes — bright purple suit jackets — seem to be their signature.

The members of the group include Richard Kelly, trumpet player from Juilliard School of Music; Jeff Conner, trumpet player from Boston University and Boston Conservatory; J.D. Shaw, French horn player from the Eastman School of Music; Ed Clough, trombone player from Boston University; and Andrew Hitz, tuba player from Northwestern University and Arizona State University.

Many of their musical numbers were originally written for other instruments but were arranged by J.D. Shaw, their talented French horn player. This includes their opening piece, "Tournament Gallop," by the first American piano virtuoso, Louis Moreau Gottschalk. When asked why it took five instruments to play the one-instrument piece, Shaw explained that Gottschalk had 10 fingers, and between the five of them, they have 10 lips.

Other Shaw arrangements included Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110 (also in the first half) and Duke Ellington’s "Caravan."

The rest of the first half consisted of "Danza Finale" from Alberto Ginastera’s nationalistic ballet "Estancia," Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (made famous by Bugs Bunny) and Henry Fillmore’s "Circus Bee."

The mood was light and classical. The pieces were fun but inspired reverence, as most classical pieces will.

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Lincoln Community Theatre’s website is at www.geocities.com/lincolncommunitytheatre/index.html. Pictures from past productions are included.  The LCT mailing address is Lincoln Community Theatre, P.O. Box 374, Lincoln, IL  62656.  E-mail: lincolncommunitytheatre@yahoo.com.

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