Here are 100 books that Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp! fans have personally recommended if you like
Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!.
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I am not a rock star but I do play a mean (computer) keyboard. My debut picture book, How to Be a Rock Star, was inspired by my musical children and our endless hours jamming as a family band. I was always on the lookout for books to inspire my little rock star, and because they were hard to come by, I wrote one! These books will inspire your budding musician, or just help you embrace a spirit of creative play in any way they want to rock.
Pokko’s parents give her a drum and soon regret it, as you might imagine. (In my own book, Mom says, “don’t even thinkabout a drum kit.”) But sending Pokko outside begins a beautiful symphonic journey that turns Pokko into a leader who makes sure her bandmates don’t eat each other. In the end, even her parents are swept away (literally) by the beautiful music.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2019 A Today Show Best Book of the Year A Booklist Book for Youth Editors' Choice 2019 A Boston Globe-Horn Picture Book Honor Book 2020 An NPR Favorite Book of 2019 A Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book A Quill & Quire 2019 Book for Young People of the Year "Extraordinary." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Inspirational." -Booklist (starred review) "Laugh-out-loud funny." -Shelf Awareness (starred review) "Will tickle kids and adults alike." -Kirkus Reviews "An instant classic." -Quill & Quire (starred review)
From E.B. White Read Aloud honor artist Matthew Forsythe comes a picture book about a…
The Real Boys of the Civil War
by
J. Arthur Moore,
The Real Boys of the Civil War is a research about the real boys who served during the war, opening with a historiography research paper about their history along with its 7-page source document. It then evolves into a series of collections of their stories by topic, concluding with a…
I am not a rock star but I do play a mean (computer) keyboard. My debut picture book, How to Be a Rock Star, was inspired by my musical children and our endless hours jamming as a family band. I was always on the lookout for books to inspire my little rock star, and because they were hard to come by, I wrote one! These books will inspire your budding musician, or just help you embrace a spirit of creative play in any way they want to rock.
When my son was a rocking toddler, he needed everything just so—a twisted guitar strap could ruin his gig. We both drew inspiration from Elizabeth Cotten, who managed to play guitar despite being left-handed and teaching herself upside down and backwards. By the age of 11, Cotten had written “Freight Train,” one of the most famous folk songs of the last century. Take that, perfectionism.
Elisabeth Cotten was only a little girl when she picked up a guitar for the first time. It wasn't hers-it was her big brother's-and it wasn't strung right-she was left-handed. But she flipped that guitar upside down and backwards and taught herself how to play it anyway. By eleven, she'd written "Freight Train," one of the most famous folk songs. And by the end of her life, everyone from the California beaches to the rolling hills of England knew her music.
This lyrical, loving book from acclaimed singer-songwriter Laura Veirs and debut illustrator Tatyana Fazlalizadeh tells the story of the…
I am not a rock star but I do play a mean (computer) keyboard. My debut picture book, How to Be a Rock Star, was inspired by my musical children and our endless hours jamming as a family band. I was always on the lookout for books to inspire my little rock star, and because they were hard to come by, I wrote one! These books will inspire your budding musician, or just help you embrace a spirit of creative play in any way they want to rock.
Rock stars don’t love following rules, so you can imagine that starting kindergarten is a problem. Lupe arrives wearing sunglasses and ready to use her pencils as drum sticks. I love that this book celebrates a girl who wants to rock without cramping her style. Lupe may have to learn to follow rules and be a good friend, but any doubts about her stardom are quickly dismissed.
When a sassy drummer starts kindergarten, the rules of school cramp her style. What’s a young rock star to do?
When Lupe Lopez struts through the doors of Hector P. Garcia Elementary in sunglasses with two taped-up Number 2 pencils—drumsticks, of course—poking from her pocket, her confidence is off the charts. All day, Lupe drums on desks, tables, and chairs while Ms. Quintanilla reminds her of school rules. Lupe has her own rules: 1) Don’t listen to anyone. 2) Make lots of noise. ¡Rataplán! 3) Have fans, not friends. But with her new teacher less than starstruck, and fans hard…
Everyone in Angelina's big family has a story to tell.
The Yesterday Dress is a story for seven to nine-year olds about family connections and how learning about the past gives us a stronger sense of where we come from, who we are and how we fit into our world.…
I am not a rock star but I do play a mean (computer) keyboard. My debut picture book, How to Be a Rock Star, was inspired by my musical children and our endless hours jamming as a family band. I was always on the lookout for books to inspire my little rock star, and because they were hard to come by, I wrote one! These books will inspire your budding musician, or just help you embrace a spirit of creative play in any way they want to rock.
If your rock star is a little shy about sharing her talents, she might relate to Bear. When it’s time to put on a show, Bear’s friends focus on making shiny tickets, sequined curtains, and very tall hats while Bear takes notes. As the title suggests, it’s up to Bear to actually figure out the show. As someone much more comfortable taking notes (and finding just the right pen and notebook first), I find Bear highly relatable.
In this hilarious story of theatrical hijinks, plans go awry when four woodland friends stage a show--unless Bear can step up and save the day!
Bear and his woodland friends are putting on a show, and there are lots of plans to be made. Their curtains need sequins! Their hats must be very, very tall! And their tickets have to be shiny! (No one will come if the tickets are dull.)
Behind the scenes, shy Bear takes notes on every detail until his paws ache. But at least he won't have to go on stage. He could NEVER do that!…
I love old records: there’s a romance to thinking about who originally owned them, where they were listened to, what life soundtrack they defined. My connection to the music industry is tenuous at best. I’ve been in recording studios, helped load equipment in and out of gigs—roadie duty?—designed liner notes, and even performed as a backup singer in a pick-up band of coworkers from the retailer where I worked. (We had two gigs.) I also like when humor is used in mysteries to offset the darkness of murder and define a character—how he or she will get through the challenge. I hope you enjoy the books on this list as much as I have!
I love reading mysteries where I also get to go a little deeper into a character’s interests or passions (especially when I share that interest but only at the most surface level).
I’ve dug through my share of old records, and I was intrigued by the idea that an old record could contain clues to a mystery. Plus, I loved the author’s voice.
He is a record collector - a connoisseur of vinyl, hunting out rare and elusive LPs. His business card describes him as the "Vinyl Detective" and some people take this more literally than others. Like the beautiful, mysterious woman who wants to pay him a large sum of money to find a priceless lost recording on behalf of an extremely wealthy, yet shadowy, client. So begins a painful and dangerous odyssey in search of the rarest jazz record of them all...
I grew up hearing jazz thanks to my dad, a big swing fan who allegedly played Duke Ellington for me in the crib. My father couldn’t believe it when I developed a taste for “modern jazz,” bebop, even Coltrane, but he never threw me out. Fifty years later I still love to play jazz on drums and listen to as much as I can. But along the way, I realized the world might be better served by me writing about the music than trying to make a living performing it. I had the great privilege of studying jazz in graduate school and wrote about big-band jazz for my first book, which helped launch my career.
Michael Denning was my dissertation advisor in grad school and one of the most impressive scholars of American culture that I know. What I like about Noise Uprising is that it gives us a whole new perspective on the beginnings of jazz. No longer is American jazz at the center of the universe. Instead, it’s a small piece of a larger mosaic of popular music that stretched from Havana and Rio to Seville, Cairo, Jakarta, and Honolulu. Before reading this book I had no idea that musical recording even went on in all these far-flung places, beginning in 1925, even before the great wave of recordings appeared from Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Jelly Roll Morton. We learn about the origin and first recordings of such major genres as samba, son, tango, flamenco, tarab, kroncong, and hula. All of these styles were deeply embedded in the social and political struggles…
In a handful of years between the development of electrical recording in 1925 and the outset of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the soundscape of modern music unfolded in a series of relatively unnoticed recording sessions around the world. These included the recording of tango in Buenos Aires, son in Havana, and samba in Rio; of hula in Honolulu, shidaiqu in Shanghai, and kroncong in Jakarta, and; of taraab in East Africa and marabi in Johannesburg. In this ground-breaking study, Michael Denning draws a global map of a musical revolution that had more profound consequences than the "modern"…
The Stormy Night is the first in a series of nine children's books for ages 8-12. The stories follow two dogs–a senior, disabled dog and a newly adopted puppy–as they learn to become friends and family.
The Adventures of Lucky and Mr. Pickle series are chapter books, not picture books.…
I love the outdoors, and there are so many benefits to playing, imagining, and being outside. I grew up on a fruit farm in Southern Ontario, so I spent much of my growing years playing outdoors and enjoying the natural world. When I became a professional educator, I read the research about the very concrete benefits being outside every day has on young learners. Bring on the recess! Books have a way of sparking action. When we read about how someone else enjoys the outdoors, it makes us want to do the same. Books are inspiring.
Ten Ways to Hear Snow commemorates the sounds of winter. Lina sets off alone to visit her grandmother (another Little Red Riding Hood reference!) the morning after a blizzard. As she walks through the neighbourhood, she notices the sounds snow makes while building a snowman, shoveling snow, and more. At her grandma’s place, they form a new point of connection because her grandma can’t see well and so relies on listening.
One winter morning, Lina wakes up to silence. It's the sound of snow - the kind that looks soft and glows bright in the winter sun. But as she walks to her grandmother's house to help make the family recipe for warak enab, she continues to listen.
As Lina walks past snowmen and across icy sidewalks, she discovers ten ways to pay attention to what might have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Hi there, I’m Lucie and I’m a writer (allegedly) but before that I’m a human and I know how hard it is to be a human. It’s a constant battle with yourself, the people around you, the world, and it’s exhausting and sometimes it can be too much but we find ways to keep going and books help me do that (as well as crying, screaming, potatoes). I find life absurd most of the time so I have to laugh about it or I’d go insane. And I’m still alive, despite constantly being in a fight with my brain, so I think I’ve got this.
A beautiful book by one of my favourite comics about one man’s mental breakdown and how music and the people who made it saved him from the worst year of his life. It’s funny and tender and all the music he references was made by people going through their own shit and about how they used their music to save themselves. It’s a book about how we fall apart and how we put ourselves back together and you don’t have to know about music to be moved by it.
The brand new memoir from James Acaster: cult comedian, bestselling author of Classic Scrapes, undercover cop, receiver of cabbages.
PERFECT SOUND WHATEVER is a love letter to the healing power of music, and how one man's obsessive quest saw him defeat the bullshit of one year with the beauty of another. Because that one man is James Acaster, it also includes tales of befouling himself in a Los Angeles steakhouse, stealing a cookie from Clint Eastwood, and giving drunk, unsolicited pep talks to urinating strangers.
January, 2017 James Acaster wakes up heartbroken and alone in New…
I’ve been collecting records since I was a teenager, and unlike many of my friends, I’ve kept all my records. I love music, but I also love album cover art. I’ve taken my interest and have written three books on album cover art that tell the story of dozens of album covers. I especially like discovering relatively unknown or anonymous artists and designers who created compelling record cover art. I am constantly looking for interesting records, and I am possessed by the desire to learn more about album cover art. I love to share my passion and let people know about the wide world of vinyl.
Wow. I was amazed to find this book. I am deeply impressed with the work that went in to gathering so many record covers by Andy Warhol. The book deepened my knowledge of Warhol’s art. I think of it as a focused history of album cover design.
I love the size (it’s big) and the reproduction quality of all the covers and related artwork.
Count Basie, Tchaikovsky, Aretha Franklin, Lou Reed, Diana Ross, John Lennon and the Rolling Stones all had their music promoted by Andy Warhol's record covers. This stunning volume reproduces all of the album covers, front and back, that Warhol designed over four decades. Hundreds of additional contextual illustrations present liner notes and inside covers, related works by Warhol and documentary images that trace the artist's visual sources. Author Paul Marechal explores Warhol's creative process, his relationship with artists and his fascination with all genres of music. The range of music represented through these record covers, from jazz to classical and…
Floretta- the story of an old woman who discovers life beautifully anew thru the helping hands of a child. The chakra colors of dawn and twilight are woven through the pages as the cycle of life is magically composed. The subject of “heaven,” has the potential to open discussions with…
Music has been a passion ever since I joined my mother’s hippie jam sessions as a toddler. During my 17 years as a professional cellist-in-training, I tried Yo-Yo Ma’s Stradivarius and played Pachelbel’s Canon at a gazillion weddings. I even made it to Carnegie Hall, performing in a university orchestra on the gilded stage. But injuries, both physical and psychological, put an end to my classical music career. Trying to forget my cello years, I entered journalism, eventually becoming a staff health reporter at Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Later, when a percussion workshop triggered a dramatic shift in my perspective, I answered the call to explore music in a more expansive way.
In the words of Joni Mitchell, you “don’t know what you got till it’s gone.” Only a person who has gone deaf partway through life knows what it means to live with and without sound. And music.
In this evocative book, British journalist Bella Bathurst chronicles her profound loss of hearing starting at age 27—and twelve years later, its dramatic return. The health reporter in me gave a thumbs-up to her skillful exploration of the lesser-known science of hearing.
She introduces expert lip readers, soldiers who accept deafness as an occupational hazard, and the copper “ear trumpets” used by Beethoven as his greatest joy ebbed. When Bathurst regains her hearing, I was awed by her description of hearing music anew: “It was a thousand volts of birdsong.”
In 1997, Bella Bathurst began to go deaf. Within a few months, she had lost half her hearing, and the rest was slipping away. She wasn't just missing punchlines, she was missing most of the conversation - and all of the jokes. For the next twelve years deafness shaped her life, until, in 2009, everything changed again.
Sound draws on this extraordinary experience, exploring what it is like to lose your hearing and - as Bella eventually did - to get it back, and what that teaches you about listening and silence, music and noise. She investigates the science behind…
