Customer Reviews

Ah, Music!

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Aliki provides a broad synopsis of music-its place in history, cultures and the human heart-in this inspirational, informative volume. Each page consists of a collage of images united by a concise narrative.
What is especially refreshing about this mini-encyclopedia of music is that Aliki "bookends" the mechanics and "hardware"- types of instruments, who's who of Western composers, time lines of jazz and pop music - with "software," placing music's emotional and social value into perspective for the child. She shows how music is the background of everyday life, for example, with this definition, "Rhythm is a marching-band beat, a puffing-train beat, a beating-the eggs beat, a heart beat."
The book closes with a panoply of pictures demonstrating how music comforts and inspires, by helping people to relax, calm anger, cheer low spirits, and create or perform work.

I bought this book specifically because it was an easy read for children. I was teaching a unit on jazz to a group of fourth grade students and found the brief history of jazz extremely useful. It broke the history down by decade, and mentioned an important fact or two about the decade. Charactures of musicians and names are mentioned too to help students identify musicians in the time periods and styles. The book overall is a great book to assist in introducing children to music, but I used it specifically for this lesson.

This book is not a story - it's an atlas of information. Kids can use this as a reference book but there are so many other choices out there for bringing music the color and joy it deserves in a more sincere and descriptive way.

Ah, Music! is a charming, inspiring and smart picture books for people of all ages. It makes a strong case for the importance of music of all kinds in our lives. If my children were younger, I'd be reading this with them, but even as an older adult I found much to enjoy in this book. It's rapidly becoming a favorite gift for friends and relatives with children.

This is a great book for music teachers, or teachers that know some about music. It is easy to pick a page and teach a lesson on that subject. It is also a good classroom book that will inspire children to want to know more.

I am an elementary music teacher and found this book very helpful in my teaching. It gives general descriptions of what music is, tells about the different instruments, and gives a short history of music by music periods along with well known composers of each period.

Great book but a saxophone is a woodwind instrument not a brass instrument because it uses a reed.....