Hallelujah: The Story of Leonard Cohen

Centering the now well-known song “Hallelujah,” Rabins and Pendon movingly recount the life of Canadian Jewish musician Leonard Cohen (1934–2016). Early pages frame Cohen as a deep-feeling youth from a musical family, and text carefully draws on the subject’s lyrics to characterize his musical awakening (“From that day on, Leonard wrote songs about the world around him—about waking up with messy hair, about seeing a bird perched on a wire”). Plotting moves quickly to Cohen’s professional success, and pages proceed to zero in on the protagonist’s forbearance in connection with the completion of “Hallelujah”—a tune about “how life is as mysterious as a secret chord.” Though the song is initially rejected by Cohen’s record company, it slowly finds its way “inside hearts all over the world.” Acoustic guitars abound in loose cartoon portraits, which capture the joyfully quotidian spirit of the musician’s work. An author’s note and further biographical information conclude. Ages 5–8. (Sept.)