We Are Music

The author of Music Is... explores the history of musical genres and instruments, moving from simple “clapping, tapping, and drums” to Renaissance-era flutes and lutes, through the blues, country, and punk, and all the way to contemporary musical styles including pop, rap, and electronic music. In kinetic spreads, band, orchestra, and soloists perform; the figures, with squiggly facial features, come dressed in styles as various as the music they play, from shirttails and overalls to flats “perfect for sock-hopping dancing feet.” In smooth, rhyming couplets, Stosuy describes the disparate rhythms of musical styles and the instruments played: “Saxophone, bass, drums, cymbals ring,/ making bebop, samba, tap, and swing.” An end section defining each musical genre closes out this up-tempo outing that declares, “no matter how music’s changed, one thing’s always true:/ We are music, and music is you.” Ages up to 3. [em](Aug.) [/em]