MUSIC IS

A lighthearted paean in verse by radio-host Moss who takes a very basic tack: “Singing, humming, chanting, rapping; fingers snapping. / Music’s grand!” Birthdays, 4th of July, even elevators are occasions for music; and every kind brings out the dance in the young narrator. Petit-Roulet’s gouaches use the simplest of forms and shapes: his round- or oval-headed people are barely more than stick figures (they resemble nothing so much as a set of clad and personified musical notes). His emphasis, however, is on their affinity for music, whether they are playing it, dancing or singing, or simply responding to the beat of a marching band. The verse ends rather abruptly: “what would life be without music? / Think of what we would have missed!” But for the rest, it bounces, it sings, and makes a great read-aloud. If it gets youngsters to ask who Gershwin is, or Ellington, or what opera or chamber music sounds like, it will have transcended its storytelling venue to reach an even higher note. (Picture book. 3-8)