88 Instruments
A little boy can't choose which instrument to play, so he decides to try them all.
Blackbird Fly
Bullied at school, eighth-grader Apple, a Filipino American who loves the music of the Beatles, decides to change her life by learning how to play the guitar.
Children's Book of Music
Grades 3-6: Introduces children to music history, profiling the musical instruments, styles, and traditions of cultures around the world.
Clayton Byrd Goes Underground
Clayton can’t wait to join his grandfather’s blues band. When his grandfather suddenly dies and his mother forbids him from playing music, Clayton decides to search for his grandfather’s band.
A crooked kind of perfect
Ten-year-old Zoe Elias, who longs to play the piano but must resign herself to learning the organ, instead, finds that her musicianship has a positive impact on her workaholic mother, her jittery father, and her school social life.
Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl's Courage Changed Music
Grades Pre-K-3: A little girl dreams of pounding on congas and bongos at a time when everyone thinks only boys can play the drums in this richly illustrated rhyming story. Inspired by the life of Millo Castro Zaldarriaga, the drummer for Cuba’s first “all-girl dance band,” it’s a powerful lesson that “both girls and boys should feel free to dream.”
Echo
Grades 4-7
Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California, find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny during the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.
Esquivel!: Space-Age Sound Artist
Juan Garcia Esquivel was born in Mexico and grew up to the sounds of mariachi bands. He loved music and became a musical explorer. Defying convention, he created music that made people laugh and planted images in their minds. Juan's space-age lounge music popular in the fifties and sixties has found a new generation of listeners.
The First Rule of Punk
Grades 4 - 7: The first rule of punk is to be yourself, but 12-year-old Malú doesn't find that easy when she has to move to Chicago with her sometimes disapproving mom (aka SuperMexican). She’s smart, feisty, honest, and very creative, expressing herself in a series of little books, “zines”, filled with art and her thoughts about everything.
Ketzel, the Cat who Composed
Grades 1-3: Based on the true story of Ketzel, a cat who walked across a piano keyboard in the presence of her human composer companion, Moshe. Surprising recognition ensues when Moshe writes down the notes played, and enters Ketzel in a contest for a composition of no longer than a minute in duration. The watercolor, gouache, and pencil illustrations charmingly evoke a very special interspecies friendship centered around music.
Let Your Voice be Heard: The Life and Times of Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger was an internationally honored folk musician and political radical who devoted his life to furthering humanitarian causes and getting people to sing.
M is for music
An alphabet book introducing musical terms, from allegro to zarzuela.
The man with the violin
(K – Grade 2) When Dylan hears someone playing their violin in the subway he wants to stop and listen, but his mother and other commuters ignore the violinist (who happens to be Joshua Bell) completely.
Max found two sticks
Although he doesn't feel like talking, a young boy responds to questions by drumming on various objects, including a bucket, hat boxes, and garbage cans, echoing the city sounds around him.
Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound
A narrative history of the Motown music label covering the historical context, personalities, and ongoing legacy of the "sound of young America."
Strange fruit : Billie Holiday and the power of a protest song
Discover how two outsiders--Billie Holiday, a young black woman raised in poverty, and Abel Meeropol, the son of Jewish immigrants--combined their talents to create a song that challenged racism and paved the way for the civil rights movement.
Swing sisters : the story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
(Grades 1-3) The Piney Woods Country Life School’s all-girl swing band attempts to make it to the big-time in an era when integrated musical groups were practically unheard of. It wasn't always easy, and it wasn't always safe, but the talented Sweethearts of Rhythm ultimately became an international sensation.
Those amazing musical instruments! : your guide to the orchestra through sounds and stories
A guide to the orchestra, from the cello to the clarinet to the tuba to the timpani, through sounds and stories.