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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Poetry + Music = Fun

Camille Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals
new verses by Jack Prelutsky
illustrated by Mary GrandPré
includes CD of music and verses
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010
review copy provided by the publisher

This music, long used to introduce children to classical music, does not need poems to suggest the animals each piece describes with sound.

These poems, written by the first U.S. Children's Poet Laureate, do not need musical accompaniment to help their rhythms and rhymes suggest the animals they describe -- the lumbering elephants, the flitting birds, the obnoxious donkeys, the slow and ancient tortoises.

But this music and these poems together, make the music more fun to listen to and the poems more fun to hear and say. What a great way to introduce children to the sounds of language along with the sounds of the orchestra.

Google books preview is here.

1 comment:

  1. This pairing of poetry and music sounds like so much fun. These days, there are a lot of books that come with CDs. Sometimes I just want to read a books (or have my children read a book) without the CD accompaniment. Other times the CD can really enhance the reading. This sounds like one of those times. Plus, I love the idea of integrating the arts and literature!

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