These are children book reviews of books that are not meant to tell a story, but are meant to provide explicit instruction. Non-fiction or educational doesn’t quite capture this group perfectly, so forgive the less-than-adequate page title.
Music
Meet the Orchestra (Ann Hayes)
Aside from all the musicians and audience members are animals, this book is very accurate. It provides simple explanations of each instrument in a storybook style, making sure that you know the difference between a bass and a cello, and so on. It’s a great book, and I particularly like it because having married into a musical family I am at least a little bit wiser for having read it.
Ah, Music! (Aliki)
This book is outstanding and I plan to use it as the cornerstone for early music education in our home. Capturing all things about music, this book starts with how music is experienced by the listener, moves into the types of instruments, explains melody and rhythm, explores world music, and ends with a brief musical history. Although music snobs (ahem, BK) may be able to find flaw with it, considering that it is limited as a children’s book it’s pretty comprehensive.
Kings Where it Counts 