PERFECT HARMONY

Thirteen poems about vocal music focus on the world renowned Boys Choir of Harlem, with photographs of choir members by Smith (Loki and Alex: The Adventures of a Dog and His Best Friend, 2001, etc.). Poetic themes include basic concepts such as breath control, tempo, harmony, and solo singing, while other poems describe more abstract concepts such as focus and the idea of many individual voices creating one larger group effort. A variety of lengths and formats includes free verse, rhyming poems, and four haiku that describe the four vocal parts (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass). The quality of the poems and photographs varies as well, with some of the rhymes a little off-key and some of the photos, especially those of singers in motion, too blurred to give much more than an impression. Elementary and middle-school music teachers may find these poems useful to integrate poetry into music classes, and they will also use the appended lists of poetic and musical term definitions with students. A final full page of author acknowledgments and thanks would have been better utilized with basic information about the choir and its significant location. (Poetry. 6-12)