Book Review of Antonia and Her Magic Wand: The Extraordinary Story of Antonia Brico, Symphony Conductor
The Children’s Book Review
Antonia and Her Magic Wand: The Extraordinary Story of Antonia Brico, Symphony Conductor
Written by Elizabeth Duncan
Illustrated by Victoria Tentler-Krylov
Ages 5-8 | 48 Pages
Publisher: Anne Schwartz Books (2026) | ISBN-13: 978-0593813928
What to Expect: Picture Book Biography, Women in History, Classical Music, Perseverance, Following Your Dreams.
A lyrical picture book biography of Antonia Brico, the girl who heard her calling in a symphony hall and refused to let a world of closed doors keep her from the conductor’s podium.
From the moment young Antonia first watches an orchestra come alive under a conductor’s hands, she knows exactly what she wants to do with her life. There’s just one problem: in the 1920s, nobody believes a woman belongs in front of an orchestra. From California to Berlin to New York City, Antonia hears “no” again and again. What she does with each one is the heart of this soaring true story.
Elizabeth Duncan writes with a musician’s ear. Her prose has rhythm and lift, building like a piece of music toward its finale, so the book is a pleasure to read aloud. She never lets the history weigh the story down. Instead, Antonia’s longing and determination carry the reader from page to page. It’s hard to believe this is Duncan’s debut picture book, and it marks the start of a career worth watching.
Victoria Tentler-Krylov’s watercolor illustrations are like a fever dream. They pull you in and hold you through to the triumphant final spread. Musical terms and their meanings are woven into the artwork itself, adding to the feeling of each page while quietly teaching young readers the language of the orchestra. The text floats, swells, and bounces across the illustrations, and the art direction and layout make every spread feel like movement. You’d swear the illustrator painted with a symphony playing in the background.
A masterpiece of words, art, and design, Antonia and Her Magic Wand belongs on the shelf of every young music lover, every child who has been told a dream is out of reach, and every classroom celebrating women who changed history. Bravo, or rather, Brava!
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About the Author
Elizabeth Duncan first fell in love with classical music when she attended a symphony concert as a child. This inspired her to begin a lifelong study of the violin. A former elementary school teacher, she lives in Colorado, where she writes and publishes books and articles about famous Coloradoans, including biographies of Helen Hunt Jackson: Colorado’s Literary Lady and Florence Sabin: Teacher, Scientist, Humanitarian. Antonia and Her Magic Wand is her picture book debut.
About the Illustrator
Victoria Tentler-Krylov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is a trained architect turned children’s illustrator and author. She received an Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Honor for her work on Cyclops of Central Park, written by Madelyn Rosenberg. In addition, she is the illustrator of Sanctuary by Christine McDonnell, which was a Kirkus Best Book of the Year and a Horn Book Fanfare selection, as well as We Are a Garden by Lisa Westberg Peter and One Small Spark by Ruth Spiro, both of which received starred reviews. Victoria’s author-illustrated debut, Building Zaha: The Story of Iraqi-British Architect Zaha Hadid, was selected for the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show. She has also created numerous covers for the New Yorker.
