Acclaimed violinist Joshua Bell is once again the subject of a new children’s book. Entitled The Dance of the Violin, it is written by Kathy Stinson and illustrated by Dušan Petricic, whose first story featuring the musician and conductor recounted his famous busking experiment in a Washington metro station ten years ago in The Man with the Violin.

The young Joshua Bell, illustrated by Dušan Petricic.

This time round, Stinson and Petricic have based their picture book on an incident in Bell’s youth. Against the explicit advice of his music teacher, the enthusiastic young student chooses a highly challenging piece to perform in an international competition held in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Although he practices diligently, Bell finds himself wracked with nerves on the day of the competition. Onstage, he makes one mistake and then another, and is eventually forced to halt proceedings and start again. Although he is momentarily embarrassed and frustrated with himself, Bell is able to get his nerves under control and plays brilliantly, earning himself a huge round of applause. Explorng the importance of perseverance and second chances, The Dance of the Violin is a joyful reminder for both children and adults that making mistakes is an integral part of success.

Stinson and Petricic’s story takes its inspiration from Bell’s participation in the Stulberg International String Competition at the age of 12. Although he was indeed very nervous and made similar mistakes onstage, Bell placed third with his performance of Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole. He returned the following year and won the competition. Bell is the subject of the cover story in the May issue of Limelight magazine.

Get Limelight's free weekly round-up of music, arts and culture.