This storybook and CD combination tells the story of a Cajun musician who lives with his Japanese partner in Kyoto, enjoying Sunday afternoon jam sessions with friends from far away places. The illustrations are beautifully drawn and the songs on the recording will give you the chance to meet Joe's mother who snorts like a hog, to fall in love with little Miss Adele who calls herself  'Hello' and to bump into a rooster who serves eggs for breakfast... It's zany-crazy and you'll love it !

This is a beautifully depicted story of a multicultural group of people who all relate to one another through music. Old Joe from the Cajun land plays the banjo, and Joe's Japanese wife plays the koto; Joe and his wife's friends from Spain play the guitar, piano, and sing, two other Japanese friends play the boyzouki and harp, and finally a young Buddhist monk gives a concert on a shamisen. The four lines on each page are presented in a poetic form less common for children's books, called rhyme enclosure; the first and fourth lines rhyme and the second and third lines rhyme. This form of separating some rhymes by more space than the traditional couplet will enhance your child's ability to find the rhymes. The four-line stanzas are presented in a box on each page, atop a section of the picture, which can still be seen in lighter shades beneath the words. This picture presentation adds to the unique and attractive look of the book. The characters pop off the pages in vibrant shades of deep red, orange, green, and white, which contrast the common beige backdrop on each page.

Expect your little one to have questions about the instruments. They will want to know what a shamisen and boyzouki are, what they look like, and what they sound like. As they are not always shown directly in the book, you may want to look up a picture of the instruments for your child, and hear it played by popping in the CD that accompanies the book. You can also stress the lesson that music can bring different people together, as any group of instruments can make a song. You can also spend some time pointing out the visible cultural queues seen on the pages, such as the Japanese woman's kimono and hairstyle, the wooden sandals worn by another Japanese woman, or the Buddhist monks' robes. This book will likely be one your child will bring forward to read many times over.

I enjoyed this book with my four-year-old niece, Emily. She stared at each picture for a little while before allowing me to turn the page, and finally wondered aloud if the boyzouki and shamisen were 'Japanese guitars'. I explained to her that a guitar is a guitar - no matter what country it is in. She asked if there were guitars and pianos in Japan. I told her Japan has all the same instruments that America does - and some more traditional Japanese instruments that are very rare here. She wanted to see some of them, so we did a few minutes of internet research together. It was a very educational experience!

--Audra