H.M.S. PINAFORE launches a series of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas written in story form by Opal Wheeler, with Miss Wheeler's arrangement of the music suitable for piano, to accompany the words of the rollicking songs so loved by everyone.

There has been little playable piano music (arranged for children) for the Gilbert and Sullivan songs, with the result that few children are even vaguely familiar with the lovely melodies or the plays of which they are a part. Now Opal Wheeler not only tells the story of each operetta enchantingly but presents with it all its gay music, so simply arranged for piano that anyone with even an academic knowledge of music can play it to accompany a child's singing.

In PINAFORE we have the story of charming Josephine, daughter of doughty Captain Corcoran, who loves the handsome sailor, Ralph Rackstraw. She is promised in marriage by her father, however, to pompous Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B. The unfolding of the romance and its happy ending are handled expertly and to the satisfaction of any reader, whether a mature Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiast or a child just beginning to savor the delights of their music.

Fritz Kredel has added some of his finest drawings, and all told, PINAFORE is a book for every book lover, every music lover to own and cherish always. A second Gilbert and Sullivan adaptation by Opal Wheeler is now in preparation.

From the dust jacket