A joyful ode to the manifold pleasures of musical expression.
This jazzy primer guides readers in noticing surrounding sounds—and feeling the ones that bubble up from within.
For their third collaboration—following How To Read a Book (2019) and How To Write a Poem (2023)—Alexander and Sweet are joined by composer, performer, and author Preston (Piscataway). Here, they focus on creating music. The narrative poem begins by calling for an attentive spirit: “Hush. / Now, / turn up your ears / and listen / to the / concert / happening / all around / you.” The delicious language refers to a bird’s “playful trill” and the “warble of / belching / frogs.” Alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, and humor flow through the directives on deep breathing and transforming responses to nature into toe tapping and finger snapping. Ultimately, readers—and the chorus of diverse characters depicted—are instructed to “wail / out each / wondrous / word.” These gifted creators bring to life a potentially abstract concept in ways that will appeal to children who instinctively dance, leap, and spin to song. Sweet’s note on choosing “op” (optical) art to convey sound is fascinating. Her hypnotic optical illusions weave through and around people in motion, buzzing bees, lively landscapes, and snippets of sheet music—all in glorious collages, punctuated with her signature pink accents. Hand lettering throughout employs different colors, sizes, and saturation to convey volume and pacing.
A joyful ode to the manifold pleasures of musical expression. (author’s note from Preston) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780063060937
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
The snappy text will get toes tapping, but the information it carries is limited.
Dancing is one of the most universal elements of cultures the world over.
In onomatopoeic, rhyming text, Bolling encourages readers to dance in styles including folk dance, classical ballet, breakdancing, and line dancing. Read aloud, the zippy text will engage young children: “Tappity Tap / Fingers Snap,” reads the rhyme on the double-page spread for flamenco; “Jiggity-Jig / Zig-zag-zig” describes Irish step dancing. The ballet pages stereotypically include only children in dresses or tutus, but one of these dancers wears hijab. Overall, children included are racially diverse and vary in gender presentation. Diaz’s illustrations show her background in animated films; her active child dancers generally have the large-eyed sameness of cartoon characters. The endpapers, with shoes and musical instruments, could become a matching game with pages in the book. The dances depicted are described at the end, including kathak from India and kuku from Guinea, West Africa. Unfortunately, these explanations are quite rudimentary. Kathak dancers use their facial expressions extensively in addition to the “movements of their hands and their jingling feet,” as described in the book. Although today kuku is danced at all types of celebrations in several countries, it was once done after fishing, an activity acknowledged in the illustrations but not mentioned in the explanatory text.
The snappy text will get toes tapping, but the information it carries is limited. (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63592-142-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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