This first book for Victoria author Elizabeth Wellburn and her husband, artist Deryk Houston, was inspired by the heroic actions of real-life cellist Vedran Smailovic during the 1992 siege of Sarajevo. Despite the danger, the cellist played Albinoni’s “Adagio” 22 times in the city square, in memory of each person killed by shells and sniper fire at the bakery next door to his home.

In this book, a fictional boy named Alen hears cello music in the street when he’s out collecting the family’s water ration. Every day the cellist returns and plays the same song, drawing an appreciative audience in the midst of warfare. Alen, who plays violin, tells his parents about the man and his music. They invite Vedran home to dinner in their safe room, the cellar, where he tells them his story. His extraordinary response to war’s violence and pain touches Alen and his family and helps them see the way to peace again. The strong blues and yellow-oranges of Houston’s palette highlight the contrasts between the remembered peace and present-day war, echoing the story’s progression from peace to war to future peace. His style is an odd mixture of representational and abstract, but effective.

Echoes from the Square is a testament to the healing power of music at a particular time and place. There are telling details: for instance, the initial sound of the cello is just another terror, then rearranges itself into music in Alen’s ears. The book is a welcome introduction to a contemporary hero, and also to Albinoni and his music. It is a worthy enterprise – there’s even an endorsement from Yo-Yo Ma. As a story, however, it is weighed down by all this earnestness. Nevertheless, it is one of the few children’s books dealing with war in the 1990s. Share it with readers nine and up.