Ring in 2024 with these skillful compositions and top-notch vocal and instrumental performances, perfect for story hours, classrooms, or family time, including an album of songs based on banned books.
These 11 family music albums full of STEM and SEL topics will have kids moving to the beat and learning some important lessons while doing so.
These selections celebrate dinosaurs, silliness, social justice, and more. Perfect for library programming, dancing, and exercise, these albums guarantee a rollicking good time.
From debut artists to returning favorites, these 11 family music albums cover a wide range of musical styles and topics.
These excellent albums have styles that will appeal to children and adults and include a wide variety of songs that can be used in story times, library programs, or just riding around in the car.
From "Let's Move" to "Moonwalking," seven out of these 11 family music albums have received starred reviews.
September's starred titles include new books from Amy Sarig King, Kwame Alexander, and Juana Medina, as well as several winter holiday reads for all ages.
From Eric Herman and the Puppy Dogs's Magic Beans to Steve Elci and Friends's Nutmegger, here are ten children's music CD titles to have on your radar.
COVID may have taken a lot away, but it also gave family music a new, louder voice that will continue to evolve and grow. Here are 10 not-to-miss family music albums from 2020 and 2021.
Children’s music artists turn to new technologies to reach eager audiences during the pandemic.
These albums showcase styles that will appeal to all ages and include songs that can be used in storytimes and library programs, or just enjoyed in the car. Chosen by reviewers from SLJ’s ClefNotes music column, these selections are must-haves for all collections.
Ten reviews of children's music CDs that are great for family time, story time, or anytime,.
From Sonia De Los Santos’s ¡Alegría!, which explores joy and happiness, to Ginalina’s It Takes a Village to Legion of Peace: Songs Inspired by Nobel Laureates by Lori Henriques Quintet featuring Joey Alexander, many of this season’s children’s music selections are filled with thoughtful positivity.
Twenty new reviews of CDs for children, including titles by Sara Lovell, Smilin' Ryan, & Papa Siama and Auntie Dallas.
In these new titles readers will meet characters who grow through their music or bridge difficult relationships to a soundtrack.
Sixteen reviews of albums for children
Gr 4 Up –When New York City radio station WQXR put out a call for donations of instruments for schools, thousands responded. Every instrument has a story, but this documentary follows just one, Joe Feingold’s violin
Reviews of 13 albums for children
123 Andrés discusses his background, his music, and why he loves performing for children.
Reviews of 16 albums for children
Canadian vocalist Diana Panton on what led to her first album for children.
A solid addition to any collection.
The appealing tunes and lyrics will delight parents and their children.
This anthology will be a valuable enhancement for classes studying the civil rights movement.
Featuring a wide range of guest performers, smart lyrics, and lively melodies, this is bound to be a hit.
A worthwhile addition to collections where lullabies are in high demand.
This upbeat and bouncy album will appeal to the whole family.
This is a must-have for librarians and early education teachers.
Those unfamiliar with Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band will appreciate this compilation of the "best" of the group. For those who own the other albums by the band, this is probably skippable.
These upbeat, appealing, singable tunes with foot-tapping beats would be great for classrooms, library storytimes, and toddler dance programs.
These offerings will help listeners build better social and emotional skills.
A delightful album that the whole family will enjoy.
This album is a great option for parents who are looking for "grown-up" music to enjoy as a family.
This is a must-have for schools and libraries that serve children and young adults with special needs.
A sweet diversion, perfect for a summer's day ride in the car for the family.
Not only will parents not mind listening to this album again and again, they may even find themselves singing along.
The fourth album in an award-winning series, this production is sure to please young and old alike.
This mix of 14 singable, high-octane show tunes, ballads, and hip-hop songs filled with introspection and snazzy jazzy melodies reinforces the show's premise: our differences should make us awesome, not outcasts. A fresh approach for teaching units about bullying.
Nothing earthshaking here. Buy where the graphic novels are popular.
This rollicking, energetic album will resonate with young listeners and their parents.
Fans of Roberts will welcome these fun and favorite songs.
My high school student record club tunes in to analog pleasures and the thrill of discovery.
Move aside, "Hamilton." Several children’s musicians bring history to life through music—and provide teachable material.
Must-have albums from 2016, destined to get toes tapping, selected by ClefNotes columnist, Veronica DeFazio.
Diana Panton's debut album for children and families; Sonia de Los Santos's gorgeous, Spanish-language songs; the latest from The Not-Its.
As with children’s books for, by, or about Latinos, the market for children’s music in Spanish has been mostly overlooked. Here are a few new and not-so-new wonderful titles.
Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade premiered on HBO, and the rest is history. Or is it? Creator of the Lemonade LibGuide, librarian Jennifer Ferretti considers the learning potential.
Inspired by the record-breaking Broadway musical, this librarian gets kids rapping, listening, and learning American history.
Set in Queens during the summer of 1977, when the Son of Sam terrorized the city of New York, Meg Medina's Burn Baby Burn is filled with pop culture references, from Donna Summer to Parliament. Steer teen fans of the book to songs and films from the period.
Reviews of recent albums for children.
A must-have for every collection.
This is truly music for all ages.
Whether stripped down or filled with drums, guitar, and brass, every song on this album is a joy to listen to again and again.
The information that is delivered will make this album useful to include in classrooms, while the music itself is catchy enough for family listening.
The complex lyrics and appropriate vocabulary make this album a useful tool for the classroom.
By using lyrics that make learning fun, the Bazillions have created another album that would be a welcome addition to any collection.
A solid addition to any collection.
This album will be welcomed in libraries, classrooms, and homes.
Young listeners will want to sing and dance along with this exuberant album.
Music spans every culture, and exposing students to diverse musical offerings is a great way to expand their outlook on the world. These performers and record labels will help build or enhance your bilingual and multicultural resources.
Ranging in format from illuminating biographical stories to engaging fictional narratives, these picture books published during 2015 celebrate the power of music to lift hearts and change lives.
A curated list of resources to help students find high-quality, copyright friendly media for use in projects or presentations.
A voice coaching program for teenagers at the Uniondale (NY) Public Library culminates in on-stage performances, high self-esteem, and community involvement.
At the beginning of March, I wrote about the reboot of the 80s cartoon Jem and the Holograms as a comic. At the time, I was skeptical about the reboot. Jem and the Holograms is a treasured memory from my childhood and I didn’t want to see it ruined. Fortunately, IDW put the book into [...]
As a lifelong reader and writer, I’ve always had a special interest in songs that talk about reading, writing, writers, or books. I’ve compiled 20 of my favorite songs about these topics for your listening enjoyment. I’m also linking to other blogs and articles that compile their own lists. There are A LOT of songs [...]
We’ve got a music theme going on this week at TLT, so we decided to collaborate on a playlist to share with you. We each chose five songs that were important to us as teenagers. I won’t tell you how long I agonized over this. Only five?! Though I would have agonized even if I [...]
Record Store Day is Saturday, April 18. As a music fanatic, I think this is a day worth celebrating. From their website: “Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 at a gathering of independent record store owners and employees as a way to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding nearly 1400 [...]
I am a pretty huge fan of This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales. For one, it is about music, which I love, and how music can in fact save you. On Sunday we discussed some of the songs that have saved TLT. And tucked away in the pages of This Song Will [...]
What makes you feel most like you? For me, the obvious answers are being with my family and being in the library. The less obvious answer is when I slap on a pair of headphones and just walk. I started doing this some time around middle school, which is in fact when most kids start [...]
Seasonally enough, last night I attended Blizzard of Voices, an oratorio by Paul Moravec (husband to your friend and mine Wendy Lamb). While you might have thought the warm and woody Jordan Hall would have been an oasis in Boston’s horrible weather, Moravec’s commemoration of the 1888 Schoolhouse Blizzard was terrible–in the exactest sense–in its evocation of […]
The post I’ll show you WINTER. appeared first on The Horn Book.
Aided by the web and social media, "kindie" music has entered a new Golden Age. Critic Warren Truitt highlights the best independent bands in kids' music.
For some time now I have been putting together a variety of webinars for Florida Library Webinars (with Novare Library Services). So when they asked me months ago about some potential topics for this year, one of the items I wanted to explore was putting more music in my library programming. I must give a [...]
I’ve been reading soprano Barbara Hendricks‘s memoir, Lifting My Voice, and it’s led me not only to a rewarding reacquaintance with her singing but to some thinking about the relationship between the artist and the critic. Hendricks spills a suspicious amount of ink over how she doesn’t pay any attention to critics (whose opinions of her […]
The post Do you read your reviews? appeared first on The Horn Book.
Bionic pets, great white sharks, and snow monkeys dart across the screen in three DVD documentaries while Brian Floca’s award-winning Locomotion arrives as an audiobook. Or, plunge under the sea with Jacques Cousteau or hop into the box ring with Joe Louis in two adaptations of acclaimed picture books
In the past couple of weeks I’ve come across a couple of videos that refreshingly reaffirm the importance of girls’ voice and what beauty is really about. In case you missed them . . . Twenty-year-old Nashville songwriter Meghan Trainer creates a pastel universe that is all about acceptance and positive body image in her [...]
The loss of a giant in the field, Walter Dean Myers, is juxtaposed against the ongoing tension around print/digital and our popular feature on music’s role in early learning in our top 10 stories of the past week.
Reviews of DVDs and audiobook for kids of every age, plus a roundup of children’s music
Here's a collection of picture-book biographies that introduces musicians and fine artists to children. The authors and illustrators have created engaging, child-friendly profiles that will hopefully lead readers to explore and seek out other materials about these amazingly talented individuals.
The Los Angeles kindie-pop group Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band are back with their most unique album to date, Fantastico!, performed all in Spanish. Read the starred review.
Dean Jones has never sounded as fresh, funky, and fun as he does on his new CD, When the World Was New, his third solo recording, loosely centered on evolution and human nature. Read the starred review.
Both Keith Urban and Nine Inch Nails are stretching their musical wings in new releases. On Fuse, listeners will hear more than a classic country sound from Urban. Hesitation Marks doesn't include a single scream from Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. Splinter Cell Blacklist relies on its classic formula—"seek and destroy while staying out of sight."
Classic rock, power pop, ska, and country musical styles are evident in the 12 original songs by Justin Roberts on his new album, Recess. Learn more about these catchy tunes in the starred review.
Wild Awake, Hilary T. Smith Katherine Tegen Books, May 2013 Reviewed from ARC Nominate in haste, repent at leisure? Well, not quite. But… I’m not entirely surprised no one, in effect, seconded this one. Wild Awake is a debut, and while I don’t have a full sense of the year’s debut slate, from what I’ve [...]
I'm not sure what was more of a surprise to me—that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been around for 30 years, or that the John Madden videogame football franchise goes back twenty five years! John Mayer has some ground to make up; his first album debuted in 2001, an Internet only album titled Room for Squares. Hopefully he'll have the longevity of the turtles and one particular earthbound former football coach.
David and Jenny Heitler-Klevans’s eighth album features 17 songs in a variety of musical styles, including South African groove, reggae, rock, hip-hop, Latin, and folk...
The third album from Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band is a delightful entry into children’s indie music...
Secret Agent 23 Skidoo is a children’s performer unlike any you’ve heard before...
This musical mix of story and 12 songs performed on guitar, bass, and drums with nice vocal harmonies features several musical styles: rock, a cappella, country, reggae, folk, and funk...
Hope Harris’s follow-up to Cousins’ Jamboree (2011) is filled with her distinctive combination of energy and information that is a true delight from beginning to end...
Canadian children’s music artist Brian Morcombe scores another hit with his latest album...
Classically trained Dina Layzis and Theresa San Luis co-wrote these 11 pop ballad lullabies, accompanied by full strings, piano, chimes, and xylophone...
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