Sesame Street Let's Make Music, Warner Home Video, 2009. UPC 074645171890, 40 minutes on DVD. $9.95
Annotation: Sesame Street characters unite with the Stomp percussion troupe to make beautiful music out of the most unusual instruments up and down the street.
Summary: This musical journey opens with Telly discovering that he has lost his beloved tuba. As he retraces his steps to try to find it, he interacts with many familiar Sesame Street characters like Oscar, Elmo, and Burt while they celebrate making music with familiar objects like oatmeal boxes, coffee cans, and glass soda bottles. The percussion troupe Stomp is visiting Sesame Street on this particular day, and they also create catchy rhythms with trashcans, pots and pans, and their own bodies.
Interspersed with the live action segments are animated and musically-themed bits from classic Sesame Street episodes, which combine with the main story line to create a captivating celebration of music. Children ages 2 and up will enjoy hearing and seeing the music that is made using everyday items and will be inspired to try making some music themselves.
Critical Evaluation: The childhood development experts at Sesame Workshop have decades of experience in educational programming for children. This DVD release is yet another product that has been developed with the interests of children in mind. Not only is the quality of the production high, but the presentation has been segmented into short portions, which are appropriate for the attention spans of the target audience.
The segments are a mix of live action, puppet performances, and animation, which will captivate the interests of young children. Additionally, the rhythmic musical numbers often feature children not only participating in the music making, but also dancing to the beat, which will encourage young viewers to get up and dance along, adding an active, dynamic element to each viewing.
Age or Interest Level: Ages 2 to 6
Why Included? Music is a key element in preschool learning, and has been shown to positively affect spatial-temporal skills and language development. This presentation makes musical learning fun, and shows how music can be incorporated into everyday life by people young and old.
Snack Time! an album by Barenaked Ladies. Desperation Records, 2008. 54 minutes,
UPC 09362-49883-80
Reader's Annotation: Songs about raisins, pollywogs, and erasers? The Barenaked Ladies have created a masterpiece of silliness in this, their first album for children.
Summary: The Barenaked Ladies, a Canadian alternative rock band who achieved great popularity in the 1990's, has brought their trademark quirky lyrical cleverness to this collection of songs for the younger set. With tracks on subjects such as hand-me-down clothing, metamorphosis, silent letters, and popcorn, the band covers topics familiar, and not so familiar, to children.
Children will enjoy rocking out to the up-tempo goofiness of songs like The Ninjas and Eraser, as well as relaxing to the slower, more insightful tracks such as Bad Day. There is plenty of musical enjoyment on this album for children ranging in age from toddlers to tweens, as well as their parents, which is a rare achievement in children's music.
Critical Evaluation: The twenty-four songs on the album are both educational and fun, and include some instruments, such as the accordion, viola, banjo, and the saw, not usually found on children's recordings. These non-traditional musical voices accompany the more typical keyboard, guitar, and percussion instruments to create a complex, catchy sound.
A variety of musical styles are represented by different songs on the album, including the jazzy Food Party, the slow and soothing Vegetable Town, and the western-influenced 789. The lyrics feature clever rhymes, puns, and plays on words, while also referencing pop culture from the 70's and 80's, a quality that many parents will appreciate.
This album provides an alternative to the saccharine sweetness and poor production qualities of much of the children's music available today. When music can be appreciated by all of the members of a family, it becomes a shared experience allowing a deeper level of connection between parents and children.
Age or Interest Level: Ages 2 to 8
Lexile Level: ---
Awards: 2008 Juno Award for Best Children's Album
Why Included? This album demonstrates what is possible when a band known for their recordings for adults pours all of their talent into creating a fun and clever record for children. The Barenaked Ladies have done just this, with a resulting album that is appealing to people of all ages.
Smithsonian Folkways Children's Music Collection. Various artists. Desperation Records, 1998. 54 minutes, UPC 09307-45043-21
Reader's Annotation: An incredible collection of songs, word play, and poetry for and by young people, selected from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Library.
Summary: This twenty-six track collection features folk songs from many cultures and ethnic groups including African American, African Caribbean, Anglo-American, Jewish, Native American, and Hispanic. With music from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, children will gain valuable exposure to global sounds.
The collection features musicians such as Pete Seeger, Lead Belly, Ella Jenkins, and Woody Guthrie, as well as poetry read by Langston Hughes, and word play by several groups of children. Some of the songs may be familiar to children of today (Mary Mack and Twinkle, twinkle Little Star), while others will be brand new (Old Bell Cow and Oksn).
The extensive liner notes provide information about the origins and history of each included song, as well as lyrics and details about the vocalist and musicians performing the work. A catalog listing of other related Smithsonian Folkways recordings is included for reference and as recommended selections for further listening.
Critical Evaluation: Beginning in 1948, Folkways Recordings began documenting folk, world, and children's music. Now an arm of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, this amazing library of sound preserves the musical heritage of many cultural groups.
This particular album of children's songs draws on this rich musical catalog with a resulting sample of widely diverse and authentic cultural selections. While many of the recordings were made decades ago, and the sound quality is not as polished as we may be accustomed to, the genuine realness of the performances more than compensates for any deficiencies in production.
In our modern society, it is vitally important for children to develop an appreciation for cultures and people different from themselves. An exposure to multicultural music, art, and traditions can further understanding of and create respect for diversity among young people.
Age or Interest Level: Ages 2 to 8
Lexile Level: ---
Awards: ---
Why Included? This is a true celebration of our world's rich musical heritage. Not only do these songs demonstrate the incredible diversity found within folk music, they are enjoyable to listen to.
Before John was a Jazz Giant: a Story of John Coltrane written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Sean Qualls. Henry Holt and Company, 2008. ISBN 978-0-8050-7994-4
Reader's Annotation: When John Coltrane was growing up, he heard sounds of all kinds: birds, instruments, music, parades, singing, and turned them into his own kind of sound.
Summary: John Coltrane was a star in the world of jazz for his abilities on the saxophone, but growing up in the South in the 1930's, John was just a child listening to the sounds around him. From natural sounds like the singing of birds, to musical sounds like his father playing the ukulele, and his mother playing their gramophone, John took it all in. At church he heard hymns and preaching, and outside he heard the whistle of steam trains and the music and marching of parades.
The saxophone solos on the radio called to John, and when he picked up a horn and blew into it, all of the sounds he had heard melded together into his own signature style of music. John grew up to become an incredibly talented musician, and Weatherford's picture book biography of Coltrane provides a window into his early influences.
The Author's Note provides an in-depth account of Coltrane's life, from his childhood in North Carolina, to his time in the Navy, and highlights from his lengthy musical career. Suggested recordings are included, to allow young readers to hear Coltrane's music for themselves. Additionally, items for further reading are recommended to expand a child's understanding of John's life.
Critical Evaluation: The narrative text, illustrations, and information included in the author's note and biographical references combine to provide a complete portrait of one of our nation's greatest saxophonists. The narrative includes simple repetition, rhythmic phrasing, and a focus on the auditory qualities of everyday life. The illustrations are primitive in style, but are full of movement, and representative of life for African Americans in the South of the 1930's.
The palette is restrained, mostly blues, grays, blacks, oranges, and pinks, which may be a result of the illustrator not wanting the visual aspect of the story to compete with the focus on the sounds Coltrane heard and played. Each spread includes ribbon-like clouds of sound, as well as bubbles and circles to represent what John was hearing.
With mentions of popular culture of the era, such as Bojangles and Jitterbuggers, the author and illustrator have provided just enough detail through context and imagery to pique the interest of curious children who may want to find out more. This picture book biography has been well-researched, and invites the reader to explore the early days of jazz culture through both sound recordings and further reading.
Age or Interest Level: Ages 4 to 8
Lexile Level: 1090L
Awards: 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book; 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Why Included? This is a wonderful picture biography of a jazz legend. The rhythmic text and the movement in the illustrations almost form a musical statement themselves, and made me want to go put some jazz on the radio.