Animagicals: Music Book

Originally published in Switzerland, this delightful book in the long, tall Animagicals series (see Animagicals: Colors too) will have your kids celebrating the sound of music! Twelve different interactive spreads pose witty rhyming riddles courtesy of poet Carol Diggory Shields, accompanied by Croatian artist Svjetlan Junakovic's whimsical and lovely paintings of musical instruments. Fold out the flap, and the spread extends to a surprise "animagical"--a creative morphing of instrument and animal. The first spread, for example, leads with the following riddle-rhyme: "I plod through the desert / ba-rumpity-bump. / My drums keeping time, / ka-thumpity-thump. / Bumpity, thumpity, / rumpity, thump, / I am a..." Open up the page flap, and the drums reveal themselves to be a "camel, with a drum on each hump." The book marches on through 11 more clue-filled poems. An accordion cleverly expands into a caterpillar: "My music is squeezy and / sometimes it's wheezy, / I'm just a... [turn the page] caterpillar taking it easy." A flute is played by an octopus, a French horn is a chameleon. Preschoolers will revel in the discovery of each transformation and in the easy rhythm of the riddles. Older readers will want to guess what the animal will be from the subtle clues in the text. (It's not easy!) Adults will relish the animagical nature of the whole package--the gorgeous colors, textures, and composition of Junakovic's work, along with the quirky playfulness of Shields's poetry. (Ages 3 and older) --Karin SnelsonRead More