The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto

Book Cover Redesign

Beginning Research

Research into Mitch Albom, the Author

The author is a musician himself and played in bands for years. He is famous for writing Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven, along with other bestsellers.

“He is perhaps best known for the inspirational stories and themes that weave through his books, plays, and films” (Wikipedia).

Genre: Historical Fiction

Other categories it is classified as include Music and Fiction.

Mood/Tone

Setting

• musical landscape of twentieth century

Visual Language Notes/Ideas While Reading

• travel to America from Spain
• classical, jazz, rock and roll
• experiences with people like Django Reinhardt, Little Richard, Elvis, Hank Williams
• guitar strings turning blue when he alters a life
• reemerges out of hiding for “spectacular mysterious farewell”
• “everyone joins a band” repetition
• “the greatest guitarist”
• visualizing the spirit of Music, who is the narrator of the book
• his nomadic ways — always traveling to different, new homes
• wearing a yellow sports coat, his handsome appearance, iconic violet black colored pompadour hair
• “A song inside a cage is never a song. It is a plea”
• “sweet cake, bowler caps, and the blues”
• “Doowap groups and Jazz quartets” — pg 247
• made a lot of music in New Orleans — pg 265
• guitarist as a diety — pg 287
• being in the spotlight
• his wife Aurora York
• “How does he rise? How does he fall?” — pg 317
• his tortured, sad soul
• records
• drugs
• the book is a musical score of his life
• the title is the name of a famous bootleg record he made
• his legacy
• “Lágrima” — a song used many times in the book. It is Spanish for tear.

Original Cover

Original Cover