Parent Book Recommendations March 2007
By Sandy Meagher

To read Sandy Meagher's article An Artistic Collaboration click here

A very special book for middle-grade children and parents to share is Faces, Places and Inner Spaces: A Guide to Looking at Art by Jean Sousa (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2006, ISBN: 0-810-95966-6). The great paintings introduced in this book are housed in the Art Institute of Chicago. The enclosed activity pack could be used as a family night activity before visiting an art museum or just for having fun together learning about great art.

For the younger readers, there is a delightful board-book series called "Mini Masters" by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober (Chronicle Books). These books use gentle rhyme to introduce classic artists such as Matisse, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir and Seurat. Some titles include Quiet Time with Cassatt (2006, 0-811-85504-X), Painting with Picasso (2006, ISBN: 0-811-85505-8) and Dancing with Degas (2003, ISBN: 0-811-84047-6).

We love to sing with our grandchildren. Dawn Publications has brought us some literary musical treasures to inspire these bursts of song, like Take Me Home, Country Roads by John Denver (2005, ISBN: 1-584-69072-0), which includes a sing-along CD, and If You Were My Baby by Fran Hodgkins (2005, 1-584-69074-7). Go to www.dawn.pub.com and check these out.

A song that has been heard, sung and loved throughout our country and now appears as a terrific picture book is He's Got the Whole World in His Hands by Kadir Nelson (Dial Books, 2005, ISBN: 0-803-72850-6). The book is interpreted as each of us would like to see it – an interconnected family representative of the earth's diversity.

A long-time storyteller and songwriter from my earlier years is Pete Seeger. His book The Deaf Musicians (G.P. Putnam, 2006, ISBN: 0-399-24316-X) allows all of us to be reminded how powerful music is, even when it can't be heard. The story is about deaf musicians who learn sign language and sign about all the songs they love. Pete tells us that at the annual Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival, a sign-language interpreter is on every music stage. As Pete says, "The real music is in the people joining together. After all, a chorus of people working together is itself a kind of magic." Now isn't that the truth?

To read Sandy Meagher's article An Artistic Collaboration click here

Sandy Meagher is the Library Department Chairperson and School Librarian in the Wayne Highlands School District, Honesdale, PA.

March, 2007, Vol.37, No.6