Sunday in Kyoto Storybook with Music CD

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Your Price: $16.95

4 Year-olds

Part Number: 9782923163567

Feature: Gilles Vigneault

Feature: Secret Mountain

Feature: Why we chose this book

Feature: About the illustrator and artist

Feature 5 About the music

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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

This CD brings a wonderful mix of instruments, tempos, and lyrics to create creative fun songs that your child will appreciate and learn from. The first song on the CD features the banjo and bouzouki - sounds children will love! - which creates a mellow melody. The first lullaby, "Sleep Tight My Love", features the flute, while "Settler's Lullaby" begins with the sounds of wind rushing and later features the piano and cello. "Settler's Lullaby" goes on to mention many animals, and comforting phrases like, "Deeper, deeper, little sleeper. Dive into your gentle dream." Some of the longer songs tell stories, with no repeating verses. "The Great Big Kite" is very upbeat and has rhyming within each verse, but no chorus of repeating rhymes. "The Poem of a Child" also does not repeat, but it take listeners on a wild adventure - the kind a child would write; "But a child when he writes, Won't know he's a poet yet, He's the first to be surprised, By the smiling words he's met."

Many of the livelier songs are full of fun sounds for your child to imitate; they can cluck like a chicken in "Joe's Mother", quack like a duck splashing in the water at the beginning of "Yoshi and His Boat", bwak like a bird in "Four Eggs", or sing and dance the "la, la, las" during the interludes between verses. The shorter songs, like "Joe's Mother" and "If you Bump Your Knee" are sung twice through, so your little one can have a second chance to join in or get the words right. They can practice counting to ten in Japanese and French with the children on the CD in "One, Two, Three, ABCD", and then laugh at the silly lyrics about a cow that farts. If they would rather listen than dance, try to see if your child can identify any of the instruments in the songs.

The Secret Mountain's music has touched the hearts of parents and children for years. With multiple awards from Parents' Choice, NAPPA and Juno Awards, the Montreal-based publishing house has made great children's entertainment that both kids and adults will love.

Little One Books

Children's books - music - videos

Sunday in Kyoto Storybook with Music CD