Book Review: Make Music!
Katie 
This book is a lot of fun and full of a bunch of ways you can make music. The first chapter is all about Body Music – Clapping your hands, filling your cheeks full of air and patting them, using your voice! (And my least favorite, whistling) The next chapter is all about making instruments out of things that you can find around the house – bowls, pots, pans, etc. Who knew you had a whole orchestra right in your house? The 3rd chapter is all about Breath music – making tones by vibrating the air – making a kazoo out of a comb, making homemade flutes, etc. Then we move on to strings! There are instructions on how to make a guitar out of a cereal box (and some other supplies you probably have around the house). Instruments from the workshop are more indepth instruments that probably need some help from adults to make. These all seemed to be a bit over my head! The last chapter talks all about creating music and how you can make musical scores. This book has a ton of great ideas and definitely fun things to do on a rainy (or snowy!) day.
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated. This book will be released April 30, 2019 from Storey Publishing.
About the book
Musician and educator Norma Jean Haynes brings the pioneering work of Ann Sayre Wiseman and John Langstaff to a new generation of kids ages 5 and up, focusing on the playfulness, spontaneity, and creativity of music. Kids explore rhythm with clapping, body drumming, and intonations. They learn to create found sound with kitchen pots and pans, the Sunday paper, or even the Velcro on their sneakers. And step-by-step instructions show how to make 35 different instruments, from chimes and bucket drums to a comb kazoo and a milk-carton guitar.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect with a book called “My Cat Looks Like My Dad” but the Dad kind of reminded me of my Dad (though we have never had a cat) so I had to give it a go. In addition to this author’s Dad looking like their cat and vice versa, they also seem to have a lot of other things in common – like what they like to eat and drink and how they spend their day! While the story may be a bit on the stranger side, the illustrations were a lot of fun to look at. They looked like they may have been made of paper piecing and some really, really cool patterned paper at that. (The Dad’s outfits are really retro and fun!) I really ended up enjoying this book a lot.
Backpack Explorer: Beach Walk is all about taking a beach adventure! It starts out with suggesting things you should bring in your backpack – like this book and something to write with, some toys, sunscreen, etc. The back of the book has 12 stickers that look like patches so when you find something at the beach that matches one of the “I See It!” stickers, you can stick it in the book! There are tips for going to the beach and some fun games you can play at the beach. As someone who grew up near the beach, I always kind of took it for granted and never looked for any of these fun items. Maybe I’ll have to go on an adventure this summer and make up for lost time!
This is a great book for a beginning reading that goes over everything that Kat Makes! It is a very short book but has a lot of great content. Easy read. Great for new readers.
Kahlo’s Koalas is a 1,2,3 count with me book. Each number is represented by a different artist and a different animal done in the style or likeness of that artist. It counts from 1-10 and has really great illustrations in the style of some very famous artists. At the end of the book it features each artist and says how each artist would have painted the animals if they had the chance to. Really fun to look at!