For this month’s Music Book Review, I have read Change Sings by Amanda Gorman. illustrated by Loren Long. This is a lovely, hopeful book all about the power of people working together to bring about change in the world, and for that change to be for the better. This is a book written for young children.
Amanda Gorman is an American poet and political activist, who was the first person to be named as America’s National Youth Poet Laureate. The first time I heard about Amanda Gorman, and indeed this is when she rose to fame, was when she recited her poem The Hill We Climb at the Inauguration ceremony for US President Joe Biden in 2021.
The blurb on the back of the book says:
"I can hear change humming In its loudest, proudest song. I don't fear change coming, And so I sing along."
Anything is possible when our voices join together. As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes – big or small – in the world, in their communities, and, most importantly, in themselves. With lyrical text and rhythmic illustrations, Change Sings is a triumphant call to action for everyone to use their abilities to make a difference.
As I mentioned above, this is a very hopeful, positive book with a lovely message for children about how they can make a difference in the world through being themselves, expressing themselves positively, and working together with people. The book starts with a young girl, who can hear change humming, and who decides to sing along with it. She is a young guitarist, her guitar looking almost too big for her as she plays sat cross legged on the floor. The girl decides to go on a journey, taking her guitar with her along the way, and as she goes on her travels she meets other children. Children who are different from her – they look different, they may have some different interests – but they find common ground through music, through musical instruments and playing those musical instruments together. The children don’t just play music though, they also work together to change and improve their community, by litter picking, or taking groceries to people in need, building a ramp for a girl who is a wheelchair user to be able to leave her home and join them on their journey, helping to clean and paint a local grocery store.
While not overt, there are very clear references that adult readers will recognise to the political situation in Gorman’s home country, the USA. She makes reference to not building taller fences, but instead building better bridges (obviously she means bridges between people, between communities rather than explicitly meaning physical bridges). She talks about not just talking about where people come from, or how they arrived in the community, but also walking people’s differences to show that they have similarities too.
This is a book about how the divisions in the USA, and in many other countries in the world including my own, the UK, can be healed by people, including children, working together. Yes, we all have different cultures and traditions. Yes, we may have originated from different parts of the world. But if we work together, listen to each other, understand each other, we may find we have more in common than we had thought. We might find that playing together means we can make music together, we can live in harmony, we can enjoy each other’s music and company.
The book ends on a very hopeful note, and if this is the direction that young people across the world take us all in, then there is hope that we can be a happier, much more peaceful, less divided and divisive world.
We are the wave starting to spring, For we are the change we sing. We're what the world is becoming, And we know it won't be long. We all hear change strumming, Won't you sing along.
Music and poetry are very much linked. If you think about writing a song, for example, you may start by writing a poem, or finding a poem you like and setting it to music. Poetry has its own rhythm. If you read a poem out loud you cannot help but hear the rhythm of the words. Of course this poem is about a musical journey where the young girl who starts our story off makes a band by finding other children who play musical instruments, or by giving musical instruments to children she meets along the way. And it is about the song they all sing together by the end of the book, this song of change.
The book is illustrated by Loren Long, an author in his own right as well as an illustrator. His illustrations help to bring Amanda Gorman’s words to life. I always think with children’s books, especially with books for young children, that the illustrations tell the story as much as the words on the page. The two work together in harmony with each other (yes, the musical reference was very deliberately added in there), and in this book both the poetry and illustrations tell the story together.
Amazon says that this book is recommended for children aged 4-8. I would personally recommend the book for children aged over 5. I think it is a lovely, beautiful book, and I think that you could read it with a 4 year old – and you know your child and what they would enjoy reading with you far better than I or any reviewer could do. But personally I don’t think I would have read this with my children before they were 5. I think the book is maybe a little long for 4 year olds. For 4 year olds you really want lots of short books to hold their attention, and one longer story is less likely to hold that attention span. Certainly my two liked turning the pages as I read, and getting to the end of one book and starting all over again, or grabbing a different book to read. That being said, there are lots of beautiful illustrations the children can look at while you are reading to them, and lots of things for them to look at. Poetry is, of course, great for young children, because of the rhythmic nature of poetry. Children love to listen to poetry and the rhythms it creates, especially when read by their loved ones. But I personally feel that my children would enjoy it more over the age of about 5, when their attention spans are that bit longer, and when I could start to talk to them about the issues raised in this book – in an age appropriate way of course.
You can purchase the book from all good book retailers, and at the time of writing the paperback version of the book is priced on Amazon at £7.35, though I should advise you that prices on Amazon can both rise and fall depending on demand.
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