From School Library Journal
K-Gr 6-Sarah Barchas' latest project is an extremely user-friendly multicultural recording that is perfect for storytimes or classrooms. Barchas sings 30 songs (15 original tunes by Barchas, 14 traditional folk songs, and one Raffi cover) on this long recording with the help of The De Colores Chorus, a group of children vocalists. The majority of songs are simple tunes that contain a catchy chorus. Both musical and non-musical adults can easily use them with groups of children. Many are call-and-response songs that teach various words and phrases in different languages, such as "The Children of the World Say Hello," "Peace," "Thank You," "Please," "Happy Birthday Around the World," "If You Will Be My Friend," and "Time to Say Goodbye." "Yes/No" is a fun activity that will have the children giggling as they recite "yes" and "no" over and over in different languages. Many of the traditional songs are sung in both English and the original language. "Frere Jacques" is sung in French, English, Spanish, and Russian. The prettiest original tune is "All Across This Wide Wide World." While most of the original melodies are more workman-like than melodic and some of the lyrics are pedestrian, this is still one of the most creative multicultural recordings ever produced for children. The booklet contains all lyrics and doubles as a handy ready-reference tool with listings of popular words and phrases in Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili.-Rob Reid, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire & Indianhead Federated Library System
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