This Is Music: Horns

Taking an expansive approach to musicality and instrumentation, this interactive board book introduces horns as making “loud sounds when you take a big breath and blow.” Informational, onomatopoeic text by Rajan references horns around the world and across cultures, including instruments such as the trumpet and the Tibetan dung-chen as well as found objects like a conch shell and a paper towel tube. Yakunova’s high-contrast illustrations, which include people of varying skin tones, portray a broad array of items from the titular category (a double reed instrument, a truck’s air horn, and objects that amplify the human voice all seem to fit the brief). The suggestion of household “horns” such as funnels encourage readers toward creative, musical play, and a hole in the book’s final pages invites kids to create their own sound. Concludes with a labeled illustration of all objects discussed. Ages 1–3. (Aug.)