Khalida wakes up one night to a special song playing in her inner ear. She tries capturing it right then on the piano, but she is told to go back to bed. She hears it again at school. But is told to g
o back to class. However, when she has a moment to play it, she cannot remember it. But finally, when the time is just right, she can give her song to everyone.
As someone who considers herself a poet, I know the frustration of hearing the music of the right words, but when you finally have a pen and paper available, they have slipped away. Khalida and the Most Beautiful Song by Amanda Moeckel shows Khalida’s frustration with the same issue, only this time it is actually music; it is a song and not the written word. However, she also shows Khalida never giving up. She keeps trying to capture that song no matter how frustrated she becomes when she is unable to.
Moeckel’s illustrations are rich watercolors and captures the music physically on the page. The art of these illustrations not only shows the song teasing Khalida to literally follow it, but the pictures themselves have their own song. The illustrations show the story just as clearly as the text, but add to it as well. Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the lack of variety with the colors. They are mostly forms of purple and blue-purples. This gives the book a dream-like quality.