Stephen Foster and his little dog Tray

Great Musicians

by Opal Wheeler, Mary Greenwalt (Illustrator)

This is a children's book, beautifully illustrated, and containing both a story and 13 songs, with music and lyrics. This fairly well-know title has been treasured by children for many years. This copy is the first edition printing, making it highly collectible.

Genres: Music, Childrens, Biography, Chapter Books

172 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1941

Reviews

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opal Wheeler writes delightful biographies for the child transitioning from listening to picture books to family read-alouds!

Wheeler’s style flows nicely, is engaging and is easy to understand. The book focuses primarily on the early, childhood and young adult years of the composer. Almost every single page spread has a picture which helps with attention and imagination. Included are excerpts from the composer’s works that can be played or sung for additional learning and for familiarization with the classics.

Definitely a good series of books to add to your home library!

Ages: 5 - 10

Cleanliness: a couple of instances of bad behavior (they are not addressed). The words “colored” and “Negro” are used.

**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!

So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! And be sure to check out my bio page to learn a little about me and the Picture Book/Chapter Book Calendars I sell on Etsy!

[Stephen Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), was known as "the father of American music." This book was published in 1941 and reflects the time that he lived, so contains terms we would consider racist. I will discuss the racist aspects of the book later in this review.

I think even in 1941, the author knew that putting a dog in the title and a picture of a dog in the cover would help sell the book. Tray is not spoken of much in the book except when he is given the dog, later in the book when he sneaks the dog under his coat to take him to the town when he will go to school, then much later after being away is reunited with him. When he is reunited he wrote a song about the dog and it is included in the book. I will include the lyrics in this review.

The book has music and lyrics for a lot of his songs. Many I am sure a lot of us may have heard somewhere, like 'Oh! Susanna,' 'Campton Races,' 'My Old Kentucky Home,' and 'Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair.' He was a very prolific and popular composer for his day.

Here are the lyrics for 'Old Dog Tray' (with the chorus added at the end when you would normally sing the chorus between each of the verses):

The morn of life is past
And evening comes at last
It brings me a dream of a once happy day
Of merry forms I've seen
Upon the village green
Sporting with my old dog Tray

The forms I call'd my own
Have vanished one by one
The lov'd ones, the dear ones have all passed away
Their happy smiles have flown
Their gentle voices gone:
I've nothing left but old dog Tray

When thoughts recall the past
His eyes are on my cast
I know that he feels what my breaking heart would say
Although he cannot speak
I'll vainly, vainly seek
A better friend than old dog Tray

(Chorus)
Old dog Tray's ever faithful
Grief cannot drive him away
He's gentle, he is kind
We'll never, never find
A better friend than old dog Tray

Stephen Foster really loved the music and dancing of the blackface minstrel shows and even dressed the part and put on a show mimicking them when he was young. The book talks about his relationship with some of the servants and he wrote songs about one or more. I think his attitude show he just accepted the thoughts about black people of the day and the author kept things that way. There is nothing in the book to condemn slavery. it is mentioned how he liked hearing them sing when they did their work. He was not an abolitionist.

Unlike the verses in that song, most of the lyrics with the music in the book are written in what we would now see as a caricature of the way black people would speak. I imagine other places you would find his songs may not be written that way.

The black and white illustrations in the book are very much a caricature for dark skinned people.

So, a story of the life of a very talented author of music and in some way good from a historical viewpoint. Also good if you want music and lyrics of his songs as there are quite a few in the book. However as the book is uncomfortably racist in illustrations and terminology, and there is not enough dog in it, it is not a book I would recommend.

[Marta Irvine · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids (3, 6, 8) loved hearing this story! We read it before going to see the Stephen Foster Story musical, and it was the perfect accompaniment!

The language regarding the enslaved people was antiquated, and therefore took some creative revising, as well as discussion about hurtful and offensive language about race...but that’s a discussion that we need to be having anyway, so I’m glad I didn’t put down the book for fear of that.

[Rebekah Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an easy story to read, but long enough to be full of interesting things about the life of Stephen Foster. It was told in story form instead of just facts, so that was good. It also includes the words and music to quite a number of his songs and a few Negro songs.

I enjoyed it even if it was written for younger readers, and I would recommend it.

[Carrie]

I don't know how to rate this. I'm reading through a 2017 lens, and it was written in the 40s. I'm going to try another one of her books.