2023 in Music Book Reviews

I love the books in The Story Orchestra series. This series of books takes a well known piece of music and tells either the story behind that piece of music, or one inspired by it. This book looks at the fantastical story behind composer Edvard Grieg’s piece In the Hall of the Mountain King, complete with excerpts from the music to listen to as you read.

In February I read the charming story of Marilyn Mongoose who dreamed of joining a band. The problem was that she didn’t play a musical instrument, and needed to find the right one for her. What’s My Instrument is the first in a series of “What’s My…” books from author Johnny Oddsocks.

In March I decided to mark International Women’s Day by reading a biography of the amazing and inspirational Dolly Parton from the Little People, Big Dreams series of books. The book looks at the life of the amazing Dolly Parton from her very humble roots in rural Tennessee to super stardom and, frankly, legend status that Dolly Parton holds today. I am a fan of Dolly’s and I think after reading this book you and your little ones would be inspired to find out more about her, and listen to her music.

Another book from The Story Orchestra series. This time all about the story that the opera The Magic Flute tells. Mozart’s The Magic Flute is brought to life for a young audience in this fantastic and beautiful book.

In May I read and reviewed a book for slightly older readers. Suitable for children aged from around 11 or 12 and up, this book takes an irreverent but informative look at the lives of 6 composers. I’ll be honest, after reading this book you will probably find yourself thinking that while these men (and yes this book features just dead, white, male composers, hopefully Isserlis will write more of these fun biographies with more diverse cast of composers, while these men were amazing composers they were not people you would want to actually spend time with.

I Am Nefertiti is a really lovely book using the backdrop of joining and playing with a new school band, to encourage children to have confidence in themselves and even stand up to an authority figure. This is a lovely, empowering story for children aged between about 5 and 7, it is a good book to help your child with their independent reading around age 6 and 7.

We are the wave starting to spring,

For we are the change we sing.

And 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.

Change Sings is a really lovely, hopeful book from American poet and political activist Amanda Gorman who I first heard about when she recited her poem The Hill We Climb at the Inauguration Ceremony for US President Joe Biden in 2021.

Ada’s Violin tells the story of an orchestra in Paraguay made up of children from the town of Cateura in Paraguay. This is a town that developed around an enormous landfill site. An incredibly disadvantaged town where the residents could not afford to buy musical instruments for their children, but Environmental Engineer Fabio Chávez and carpenter/recycler Nicolás “Cola” Gómez made musical instruments from trash found in the landfill site. The orchestra went on to perform to sold-out audiences all over the world. Although this book is told in story format it is a non-fiction book, and absolutely inspirational.

Welcome to the Opera is a brand new book from author Carolyn Sloan. This book uses Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute (this is 2023’s second book which introduces children to this fantastic opera that is perfect for a first opera for audiences of any age) to teach children about opera – an art form that many people find difficult and intimidating. In the book Sloan tells us not just what this particular opera is about, but also about opera in general – what do you call the singers who sing an opera, what are the songs they sing called, for example. It’s a lovely introduction to opera, and a sound book to boot with several short excerpts from the opera to listen to, for very young children.

I first reviewed this book for the Autumn edition of Primary Music Magazine but wanted all of my readers to be able to hear more about this beautiful book. In this book pianist encourages children, (probably aged around 9 and up) to have a look at music they may previously have thought of as dull and boring, old music. He tells the reader about the composer, about their lives and about why their music was revlotionary for its time, and how their music continues to exert a profound effect on many artists composing and recording music today. It is a book that could well encourage even reluctant listeners to give music by the composers discussed a chance. There is a Spotify playlist that goes along with this book, and it comes with a free poster as well! What more could you want?

Music Book Review: Playlist – The Rebels and Revolutionaries of Sound by James Rhodes