Great Books for Kids!!

using music to encourage literacy

Welcome to my page of *ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC* books for elementary kids. I'm an elementary music teacher and I have put together a list of great books that children absolutely LOVE and that use music to encourage reading and love of books.  I have tried out multiple versions of several of these titles and found the one that is the best!

I buy several books every year for my school music room -- these are my favorites!  I am partial to books that have lots of color, very good artwork, and are a good size so many children can see it.  These are great resources for an elementary music teacher, an elementary classroom teacher, or for a parent who wants to encourage their child to love books.  Using music along with literature just increases their enjoyment of reading.
Teachers: use these books as a starting point for Elementary Music Lesson Plans or classroom lesson plans.  
Parents: these books will be your children's favorites, to be read again and again.

Each of these books are linked to amazon.com for more information.  
If you have found a great book that you would like to see on my list, please email me.



Try Amazon Prime for FREE -- get unlimited free 2-day shipping
on millions of items.

xxxxxxxxxxxXXXxxxxxxx
Be sure to check out my other pages:

Home page

K-1st Books

2nd-3rd Books

4th-5th Books

Christmas Books

Music Teacher Resource
(more coming...)

The Big Book of Musical Games (by Pressnall)





 

Great Books for 2nd and 3rd graders

Be sure to check out the other age-graded pages at left



I Got Two Dogs: (Book and CD)
by John Lithgow
11" x 8.8"

This is a very cute book. Nice bouncy song, good pictures and lyrics. My K-3 kids love it! They love to sing along, especially with the "oo-oo-oo-oo" of the dogs howling. CD comes with book.












The Cat Came Back
(Penner/Ill. Reichert)

There are several versions of this song in book form, but I liked this one the best. The 2nd grade has this story in their reading curriculum, but it is also good for 3rd-5th graders.  My students loved this book, and the 2nd graders sang the song to their classroom teacher.










Our Marching Band
by Moss

This is a good story about children who put together a marching band, playing different instruments.  For the marching page I play "Stars & Stripes Forever" and point out the different instrument as they hear them.




size 10" x 10"

This is a fun book!  The kids loved it.  It's about farm animals who start a band.
And if you can add to it a rock version of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," it will make it even better.  I used Rufus Thomas' great version on
It was fantastic!  This is one they ask for again.
With this rock-n-roll version of the song on CD, the book even works great with 4th & 5th graders.









by Lithgow
size: 11.4" x 8.9
This is a cute song about a kangaroo who decided she didn't like being a kangaroo.  The book comes with a CD of the song sung by Lithgow.













by Costanza
size: 10.3" x 10.2"

This is a cute story about Mozart having writer's block and his bird helps him with a melody.  Because he plays the piece in a piano concert at the end of the book, I used one of Mozart's Piano Concertos.    Mozart's Piano Concerto #22

Or you could use any of  Mozart piano concertos





Tubby the Tuba
by Tripp, ill. by Cole
size: 11.1" x 9.2"
(Although this seems like a story for very young children, this is best for 2nd graders since it is 14-min long. K-1 kids have difficulty staying focused on it.)
It comes with a CD of the story being read along with musical sound effects to the story.
 
There are several other "Tubby" products available:

* Tubby the Tuba : Play it Happy - A CD with 3 Tubby stories on it: 1. Tubby the Tuba, 2. Tubby the Tuba Meets a Jazz Band, 3. The Story of Celeste.

*A CD by Manhatten Transfer with "Tubby the Tuba" story.  This version is interesting because it has different voices doing the different parts, but all in all it isn't really that much better than the original version read by one man.

* Tubby the Tuba on DVD. The Publisher description says, "Tubby is a tuba who longs to find a melody that only he can play. Fun and magical music for all ages!"

*Tubby the Tuba   81-min video with several Tubby the Tuba stories put together into one, voice of Dick VanDyke.



 


Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah
(by Allan Sherman)
Size: 10.2" x 7.6"

This is a funny book that is very entertaining.  My students are singing it in the cafeteria!

Tie in the original music, which is "Dance of the Hours" (on Fantasia)


You can buy a recording of the song, sung by Allan Sherman, on iTunes for 99¢ or get the original CD from Amazon.com

Allan Sherman CD -
includes 19 crazy songs by Allan Sherman

 


 

 




Senor Don Gato
Illus. by John Manders
Size 10.6" x 8.8"

What a cute book!  This is an old song and a lot of fun to sing.

If you are looking for a CD with the song, you can find one on "Reading Rocks " sung by the group, Cat's Pajamas. It is currently out of print, but there sometimes is a used copy for sale at Amazon, or you might find it at a public library.

2rd & 3rd graders will especially like this book!



American Folk Songs

This is a good series of books on American folk songs.  There are several books in the series, but I liked these three the best.


Clementine
(by Owen & D'Antonio)
size: 8" x 7.7"

This is a colorful and fun book based on the folk song by this name.  It's a good time to bring in a little history of the gold strike of 1849, and how the San Francisco 49's got their name.  The kids get a big kick out of Clementine's shoes.  And they love singing this song.

Other songs that were favorites of the 49's were:

"Sweet Betsy from Pike," and "Polly Wolly Doodle"


I've Been Working on the Railroad
(by Owen & D'Antonio)
size: 11.3" x 9.3"




She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain
(by Owen & D'Antonio)
size: 8" x 7.7"




Patriotic Songs


Yankee Doodle  
(by Qualey & Owen)
size: 11.3" x 9.3"

This is a great picture book about the song.  It has 3 verses and lots of colorful, large pictures.
This is a good way explain the history of one of our favorite patriotic songs. 
It was orginally sung to make fun of Americans, probably beginning in the 1750's. Some say that the New York Dutch settlers' word for Johnny was Janke, pronounced "yankee," and "doodle" was a simpleton, thus Johnny Simpleton pretty well described what the British thought of their American cousins. Of course the funny part of it is that the Americans adopted the song for themselves, and at the surrender of Cornwallis to Washington in 1781, the Americans played "Yankee Doodle" while the British filed by Gen. Washington and laid down their arms.

Here is a little historical background to the song.  There are many other verses.
You might also want to listen to "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy" by George M. Cohan

There are several books in this series, some better than others.  The other ones that I like are:
The Star-Spangled Banner   & You're a Grand Old Flag .  These two books are the words to the songs by that name.  You're a Grand Old Flag has some drawings of different US flags through our history, which is interesting for the kids to see.
     



Not in this series, but along this same line, I also really liked . . .

The Star-Spangled Banner
by Winstead
size: 10.4" x 10.4"

This is the story of the night the song was written, Sept 13-14, 1813, during the overnight Battle of Fort McHenry.  A good book to use on the anniversary (Sept 14) of the song.








The Music Teacher from the Black Lagoon
(by Thaler & Lee)

This is a really cute book with lots of musical terms worked into the story in humorous ways.














The Remarkable Farkle McBride
(by John Lithgow)
size: 11.6" x 9"

This is a MUST for every elementary music room!  It tells a story about a little boy who is such a genius he learns to play every instrument.  The story is fun and keeps the children's interest, even though it takes about 10 minutes (with the recording)

A recording of the story read by John Lithgow has wonderful examples of each of the instruments, the sections, and the whole orchestra.  Unfortunately, it doesn't come with the book, but must be ordered separately on one of his CDs:




Farkle & Friends
This CD has several fun songs by John Lithgow that your kids will enjoy, including "The Remarkable Farkle McBride" to accompany the book.




The Remarkable Farkle McBride Arts-in-Literacy Kit
(by John Lithgow & Teresa Domnauer)
Amazon price - $203.99 
($299.99 from the publisher)
This 146 piece kit features best-selling author John Lithgow's Palooza Readers.  Teaching literacy through the world of music.




OTHER GREAT BOOKS:

•

• The Dog Who Sang at the Opera (West & Izen).  This is based on an event that really happened.  A funny story.  The kids were fascinated that it really happened!

• Michael Finnegan (Hoberman) - good story, can be sung to the tune of the original.

• Bill Grogan's Goat (Hoberman)  This song is in the 2nd grade music textbook, but the children enjoy seeing the pictures to go along with this old fun song.

• Bake You a Pie (Olson-Brown)  This was a really fun book.  It takes a little tune and then puts it into many different styles of music, such as, opera, rock, Cajun, etc.  CD included with it is necessary to show the different musical styles.

• There Was a Cold Lady (by Colandro & Lee)  This is a take-off of the old song "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly."  There are many versions of this song in several different books for children.  This one is for winter, and has a surprise ending.

• Mozart's Tonight (by Downing)  Interesting story about Mozart's trip to Prague to present Don Giovanni in 1787.

• Lady with the Alligator Purse (Hoberman) - This is a fun little song that the kids ask for over and over again.  It has a little different twist to it that you might not have heard before.

• She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain (Sturges/Wolff)  This is a little different version with a southwestern theme, and "she" is driving an RV instead of a wagon!

• Orchestranimals - Very cute book. It's out of print but there are some used copies at amazon.  It tells about on orchestra made up of animals and highlights the instruments they each play.

• Down in Louisiana - Rhyming book with different animals in Louisiana.  Can be sung.
CDs for Kids



Hap Palmer's CD
Can A Jumbo Jet Sing The Alphabet?

This CD includes a favorite of mine:
'Round the World With Ways To Say Hello
It is a song that shows how to say hello in many languages around the world.

 
Mar. 2007