M Is For Music: Books to Inspire an Interest in Music (continued)

Bring on That Beat
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
By: Rachel Isadora  
Penguin Putnam/G.P. Putnam's Sons, $14.99 (Hard Cover)   

With dramatic oil paintings in black, white and grey, artist Rachel Isadora evokes Harlem during the 1930s when jazz was everywhere-- played in clubs, movie theaters and impromptu rooftop concerts. To give young listeners some sense of the music's rhythm and power, the artist injects splashes of brightly colored, computer-generated designs. Though we can't hear the music, we can almost see it. 

What Charlie Heard
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
By: Mordicai Gerstein  
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $17.00 (Hard Cover)   

Adults are not too old-- and four is not too young-- for author-illustrator Mordicai Gerstein's exuberant and profoundly moving picture book tribute to groundbreaking composer Charles Ives. Gerstein's illustrations are alive with words for the natural and human-made sounds that made up "Charlie's" aural tapestry from his babyhood in the late 19th century to his adulthood in the 20th, from drums, bells, birds and fire trucks to the quiet tick-tick of a clock and the purr of a cat. 

The Musicians of Bremen
Ages: 4 - 8 yrs.
Author: Jane Yolen   Illustrator: John Segal  
Simon & Schuster/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers,

Though it has been endlessly done and redone, the is something new about this version of the Grimms' tale. Jabe Yolen's easy, brisk prose brings alive the story of the four unfortunate animals consigned to death by their masters: the music they make together is hideous, so awful it saves them. John Segal's spare, small watercolors strike amusingly discordant and hilarious notes. He leaves ample white borders around the pictures and open space within them to invite reader's imagination to play its own music with this tone-deaf band. 

M Is For Music
Ages: 5 - 8 yrs.
Author: Kathleen Krull   Illustrator: Stacy Innerst  
Harcourt Trade Publishers/Harcourt Children's Books, $16.00 (Hard Cover)   

Music and the alphabet have always gone together. Don't kids learn their letters by singing the ABCs? But you've never seen--or heard--a musical alphabet like this one. Beloved tunes. Unusual instruments. Legendary virtuosos. From anthems to zydeco, the language of music and the music of language harmonize in one superb symphony. It's a funky fusion for songsters of all ages! Book Description

Two Scarlet Songbirds: A Story of Anton Dvorák
Ages: 5 - 9 yrs.
Author: Carole Lexa Schaefer   Illustrator: Elizabeth Rosen  
Random House Children's Books/Knopf, $16.95 (Hard Cover)   

In the summer of 1893, Anton Dvorák, while on summer break from his directorship at the National Conservatory of Music in New York City, took a vacation to Spillville, Iowa, a farm community comprised largely of Czechoslovakian immigrants. In this slight story, based on this actual occurrence and the idea that the third movement of his String Quartet #12 in F major had its roots in the song of the Scarlet Tanager, Dvorák hears the bird's song and other sounds of the country and is inspired to compose. When he performs the new piece of music, the tanager quite likes hearing his song in the voice of another "scarlet songbird." The story won't interest every reader, but for music lovers and musicians-to-be, this gentle narrative will be a favorite.