My favorite Music Books
Compiled by Teacher Susy
Carnival Of Animals by
Saint Saens by Henry Holt and Company illustrations by Sue Williams and
commentary by Barrie Carson Turner. It is fun, whimsical, imaginative and
evocative. You will grow to love it too, I promise!
Can You Hear It? Created
by The Metropolitan Museum Of Art , this gorgeous book couples famous works
of art with musical selections. It has information about instruments in the
beginning and descriptions of the artwork in the back of the book. Each selection has information about which instrument is being played and it asks:
“Can you hear…”various sounds and characters in the music. It comes with a high quality CD recording of superb orchestras.
From Sea To Shining
Sea A Treasury Of American Folklore
and Folk Songs complied by Amy L. Cohn
Gonna Sing My Head
Off collected and arranged by Kathleen Krull,
Illustrated by Allen Garns
The Musical Life Of
Gustav Mole, and the sequel The Lost
Music published by Child’s Play, illustrated by Kathryn Meyrick Both have
recorded versions that are the highest quality. Narrated by Patrick Macnee, a
wonderful British actor. These stories will capture your child’s imagination, as they
listen to wonderful classic and world music. The sequel features music from
around the world. These books are storytelling at it’s finest. You can’t go
wrong with Gustav!
Lives Of The
Musicians Written by Kathleen Krull, Illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt. This
whimsical book is an excellent introduction to 20 iconic composers, from
Vivaldi to Woody Guthrie. The illustrations are hilarious and the biographies
tell the story of the composer’s lives in an entertaining way.
A Coloring Book Of
Great Composers, Chopin to Tchaikovsky
Bellerophon Books makes fantastic coloring books. They are
like textbooks you can color. The illustrations are fanciful and fun.
http://www.bellerophonbooks.com/musical/
Getting To Know The
World’s Greatest Composers
Written and illustrated by Mike Venezia (He also has a
series for artists) Featuring musicians from the Beatles to Mozart. The illustrations
are hilarious; photographs are used throughout the books. They are softcover
books, easy to carry, and only about 30 pages long. Your kids will really enjoy
these fun stories; they make these “serious” musicians feel more accessible and
real.
Famous Children published by Barron's These skinny softcover books tell about the early years af great artisits and composers from Bach to Toulouse-Lautrec
Zin! Zin! Zin! A
Violin By Lloyd Moss Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman This Caldecott winner
is one of my very favorite children’s books! The pictures are magical and
imaginative and the verse is poetic and comical. It has an element of mischief
as a dog, two cats and a mouse run through the scenes while the musicians play.
The musicians are silly as they play, swooning, sweating and kicking up
their heels. Your whole family will love this fantastic book!
Do Re Mi By Susan
L. Roth This book tells the story of Guido d’Arezzo, the “Father Of Music”. He
was the first person to develop musical notation. I learned a lot from this
book. It is a great conversation starter, as it makes you think about what it
was like before we had a way to write down and share songs.
Meet The Orchestra
by Ann Hayes. All the instruments are played by animals and the lion is the conductor
(of course). This book provides short descriptions of each instrument. I love
this book and use it often. Kids love it too!
Hand, Hand, Fingers,
Thumb, by Al Perkins Illustrated by Eric Gurney
Brown Bear, Brown
Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr/ Eric Carle
Charlie Parker Played
Be Bop By Chris Raschka
Peggy’s
Violin by Barbara York and Peggy Hills
Peter
And The Wolf, Bellerophon Books makes a fun coloring book version with
excellent text that tells the story of the story and information about the
instruments.
Tubby
The Tuba
The Wee Sing books, CD’s and DVD’s by Pamela Conn Beall and Susan Hagen
Nipp. These are an excellent resource with hundreds of great songs from camp
favorites to classical music.
