THE FIRST MUSIC

Pritchett offers a stylish telling of an original how and why story. The animals in the African forest realize that their disparate sounds are actually music. It begins with the gathered animals making their individuals noises: “Hyena yelped . . . monkey chittered.” But when the elephant starts beating on a hollow log with his foot, his rhythm—“Boom boom boom boom padadada boom!”—captures the fancy of the other animals. All join in except the silent frogs, watching from their lily pads. The jam sessions accelerate, with dancing and improvised beats, and on the seventh day the silence of the forest is broken by the “Reep-reep-ree!” of the frogs. King Frog croaks out the beat, and everyone is part of the animal orchestra. Banks’s stylized oil paintings give the African forest a rich, dark beauty. In an author’s note, Pritchett offers helpful suggestions for listener participation. (Picture book. 3-7)