Why read Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin?

Book cover of Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin

Book description

A Caldecott Honor book that is the perfect introduction to musical instruments and a counting book that redefines the genre.

When this book begins, the trombone is playing all by itself. But soon a trumpet makes a duet, a french horn a trio, and so on until the entire orchestra…

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Poetry

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Stephanie Calmenson

Author

In this perfect pairing of words and pictures, readers count along as instruments are added one by one, with musicians going from solo to duo to trio until a chamber group of ten is formed.

The language flows musically, "Gliding, sliding, high notes go low."

The images soar and delight with detail. The book ends with calls for an encore and children are bound to ask for encore readings.

From Stephanie's list on counting for young children.

Melanie Ellsworth

Author

This book starts with one trombone, all alone, and adds another instrument on each page until there’s a chamber group of ten. The text swirls and twirls in happy harmony with the illustrations. It’s quite a feat to describe instruments and their sounds in rhyming verse, but this flows along seamlessly. Listen to this oboe description: “Gleeful, bleating, sobbing, pleading, through its throbbing double-reeding.” In addition to introducing orchestra instruments, this book teaches counting (1-10) and terms like “duo,” “trio,” and “quartet,” so it works well for a wide age range of picture book readers. My favorite illustration is the…

From Melanie's list on introducing young readers to orchestra instruments.