Published by Dial Books

Summary:  This musical alphabet book has a poem for every letter: from the A the oboe plays to warm up the orchestra to the Zzz’s the musicians and audience members catch after the performance.  In between there are poems celebrating different instruments, the people involved in making music, and the music itself, both what’s written on paper and what is performed.  40 pages; grades 1-5.

Pros:  An A to Z poetry book of music didn’t really grab me, but once I started reading, I found every poem engaging and I zipped through the book in no time.  Many different aspects of music were covered (and of course I appreciated the fact that the letter L celebrates music librarians), and the energetic illustrations help readers understand the topics of the poems.

Cons:  Readers unfamiliar with music will need some additional context; it would have been nice to have some of that provided with either information on each page or with some back matter.