Book Review: Kate the Great and the Middle C Music Shop

In this book review installment, we turn to  the first book in the Kate the Great picture book series, written by Wayne Bartholomew and Jaime Garcia.  If the rest of the books in the series are as interesting as this one, these are definitely some books to consider adding to your home library as more books in the series are released.

We are introduced to Kate when she visits the Middle C Music Shop.  As Kate explores the Middle C Music Shop, the young reader is introduced to all kinds of instruments too, but how they sound and the story they tell are left up to the reader’s imagination.

Created as a kind of interactive comic book style picture book, the only text in the book are the names of the instruments.  However, the illustrations are imaginatively suggestive and help spur creative conversation about each of the instruments.

This book would be very interesting for any budding young musician interested in learning more about the instruments of the orchestra, but what makes the book so fun and unique is the way it leaves the interpretation of the descriptions of the sounds of the instruments and the emotions they evoke to the inner ear and imagination of the reader.

The illustrations in the book really do help convey the intent of the book to pull from the reader what the reader hears when he hears each of the instruments that Kate the Great discovers in the Middle C Music Shop.

With the gentle guidance of an adult, an open-ended interpretation of the illustrations, and listening to the instruments at  www.katethegreatcomics.com while you read the book, the book promises to provide a delightful and innovative experience with the instruments – and will likely cause you and your child to listen to music in a whole new way!

This book would be perfect after a young child’s first introduction or interaction with the orchestra, or as a gift for a child in a Level 4 or Level 5 Kindermusik class who is learning about the instruments of the orchestra.

Kate the Great and the Middle C Music Shop by Wayne Bartholomew and Jaime Garcia is published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform and is available from your favorite local bookseller, or online in paperback and digital formats.

Shared by Theresa Case whose award-winning Kindermusik program is located at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, South Carolina.

For more music, ideas, and fun, and to find a class near you, visit Kindermusik.com. 

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