Three of my favorite things recently converged: books, music, and my granddaughters. When Sarah Breitenother, the founder of Pirouette Kids, contacted me about reviewing a new series of books they’ve published, I was thrilled! The series is a collection of board books that helps young kids discover various genres of music.
My granddaughters are in the target demographic, so I figured they would be the perfect test subjects for this review! I had the older one over for our weekly date and told her I had some new books to show her. She eagerly climbed onto my lap as we read each one, quickly learning that we had to flip the little on/off switch on the back of the book first to make sure the music selections would play.
Once we started reading she had fun looking for the small button to press on each page spread and then listening to the musical excerpts that wafted from the pages. The descriptions and/or lyrics for each song are the perfect length to keep a toddler’s attention, and my only complaint is that some of them are too short (the folk music songs, in particular, sometimes cut off right before the last line!), but I suppose that’s a limitation of what the device storage can handle… [NOTE: Just as I was about to publish this post, I clicked over to the website to check something and discovered that there is a whole page of Free Music that gives you quick access to the full-length versions of each song in the books. Hooray! Now when you can’t stand to leave Oh Susanna hanging before the final refrain, you can find resolution just a click away.)
There are four books in the series: I Discover Blues Music, I Discover Folk Music, I Discover World Music, and I Discover Classical Music. As soon as we finished reading through all four of them, she looked at the stack and exclaimed, “Let’s read them again!” I happily obliged.
Once we’d read them all three times I asked her, “What do you think?” She pointed to I Discover Classical Music one and stated, “I like this one.” Way to make her piano teaching grandma proud! Lol!
Each book boasts six musical snippets and beautiful page spreads with colorful illustrations that spark plenty of further commentary and discussion. I especially like the I Discover World Music book for its ethnic songs and glimpse of different climates and cultures. It may find its way into a future lesson plan for one of our Piano Expeditions piano camp programs!
Sarah has generously offered a 20% discount to all Music Matters Blog readers, so stop by the Pirouette Kids website today to check them out for yourselves. Just use the code MUSICMATTERS when you checkout to receive your discount. These are a delightful read and a welcome addition to every music teacher’s collection!
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