'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Thursday 4 July 2013

Review: My Band

There are ten musical instruments in a young girl’s band. She wants you to guess which one she is going to play. Will it be a guitar, a triangle, or maybe even a saxophone? Use the clues and have a guess before lifting the flap to see if you are right.

My Band introduces young children to the different instruments that make up a band and the different families of instruments. As children lift the flaps to see if they have guessed correctly, they find a picture of the girl playing the instrument as well as a very simple explanation of how the instrument is played and what family (percussion, brass, woodwind or string) the instrument belongs to.

Gorgeous illustrations with pastel backgrounds and simple, easy to understand text make this a wonderful book to introduce children to the variety of instruments that can be part of a band.

The book invites children to explore music themselves by encouraging them to include a photo of themselves as a conductor in the final illustration as well as providing easy to follow instructions for making a guitar, French horn, castanets, a tambourine, panpipes and an oboe from simple household objects. The project pages include pictures from the National Library Collection as well as some interesting facts about each instrument.

My Band is a wonderful resource for preschools or families at home.

Title: My Band
Author: Elizabeth Lea
Illustrator: Chantal Stewart
Publisher: National Library of Australia, $17.99 RRP
Publication Date: 1st April 2013
Format: Soft Cover
ISBN: 9780642277701
For ages: 3 - 6
Type: Picture Book, Lift-the-Flap