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Dream Songs Night Songs From Belgium to Brazil Storybook with Music CD
Dream Songs Night Songs From Belgium to Brazil Storybook with Music CD
Dream Songs Night Songs From Belgium to Brazil Storybook with Music CD
by Patrick Lacoursiere
Illustration by Sylvie Bourbonniere

The Storybook-Music CD from this critically-acclaimed, award-winning world lullaby collection features wonderfully recorded songs from around the world sung in their original language. Beautifully recorded lullabies along with an illustrated bedtime story - in English, Spanish and French - about an imaginary journey to unknown lands. Performers Bia, Marco Calliari, Hart-Rouge, Paul Kunigis, Penny Lang, Luc Lopez, Muna Mingole, Zal Idrissa Sissokho and Lynda Thalie share their culture in offering lovely, warm lead vocals and harmonies, supported by a highly skilled group of musicians playing more than 30 different instruments. The earth-toned, dreamlike illustrations reflect both the subject and country of origin of each song.

Age: 1 Year-olds | Title: Dream Songs Night Songs From Belgium to Brazil Storybook with Music CD  |  Author: Patrick Lacoursiere  |  Publisher: The Secret Mountain

The Storybook-Music CD from this critically-acclaimed, award-winning world lullaby collection features wonderfully recorded songs from around the world sung in their original language. Beautifully recorded lullabies along with an illustrated bedtime story - in English, Spanish and French - about an imaginary journey to unknown lands. Performers Bia, Marco Calliari, Hart-Rouge, Paul Kunigis, Penny Lang, Luc Lopez, Muna Mingole, Zal Idrissa Sissokho and Lynda Thalie share their culture in offering lovely, warm lead vocals and harmonies, supported by a highly skilled group of musicians playing more than 30 different instruments. The earth-toned, dreamlike illustrations reflect both the subject and country of origin of each song.

This storybook-CD combination portrays an imaginary journey to unknown lands. Each page has one line of the story, printed in three different languages - English, Spanish and French. Seeing the same phrase printed in three languages, right next to one another, allows for a direct comparison. Although your little one may be too young to read even the English version yet, it will help them recognized printed English, as well as see the differences of other languages. The pages are filled with earth-toned oil painted pictures of dream-like images, like a bull running through the clouds carrying a swaddled baby, a goat so tiny a woman is holding it in one hand, and a bird playing an instrument. The pictures are slightly abstract cartoons, filled with children and people of all shapes, colors, and genders, as well as animals (bull, bunny, goat, bird, chicken, dog, and fish), and intricate tribal designs. All of the characters - human or animal - are smiling, encouraging the same from readers.

Your child will likely want to hold the book, or at least be within reach so they can touch the pictures. The textured backgrounds look like canvas, and the images will be new to them - a cow with a blue head, a young girl with wings, and a moon with arms and eyes. Your little one may point to objects they will recognize, like the flowers or a heart, and you can reiterate by stating the name of the object. If you listen to the accompanying CD while looking at the page, the learning experience is greatly heightened, as the song melody, tone, and tempo should match the mood of the pictures. If you don't have the CD, you could make up your own story to go with each page, using the one line of English as a starting point.

I read this storybook with my one-year-old friend, Mosley. We looked through the book together once, reading the lines, but moving rather quickly. Then, we put the CD on and looked through the book again much slower. My original plan was to turn the page only when the next song began, but Mosley's patience and attention span are not that developed yet, so I let him flip the pages as he saw fit while the CD played in the background. I noticed that when he liked the song, he would settle on a single page and just loose himself in it while hearing the music. I think he was making up his own stories in his head.

--Audra

Patrick Lacoursiere was an actor, producer and journalist in Western Canada, before writing the award-winning collection Dream Songs Night Songs.
 
Sylvie Bourbonniere has seen her works used by The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune and People Magazine. She has also illustrated several children's books including Tales from the Isle of Spice and Contes d'Afrique .
 
This recording is a Parents' Choice Gold Award winner, and a Honors Award winner from the National Parenting Publications Association (NAPPA). The CD includes 13 songs plus PDF files with illustrations, original lyrics and translations.

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.

The lullabies are derived from Indonesia, Brazil, Senegal, Belgium, Algeria, Israel, Cameroon, Occitania, Canada, Germany, Seychelles, Italy, and the United States. With only one song in English, the majority of a listener's experience will be the tempo, beat, and sounds. The library of instruments used is vast; the more commonly heard instruments are the electric, acoustic, and classical guitar, bass, upright bass, ukulele, mandolin, accordion, chimes, cow bells, flute, piano, bongo, and maracas. The newer sounds are offered from the flute-like ocarina, a type of tambourine called a pander djembe, a hollowed gord instrument from Cuba called a guiro, and drums from Brazil, the Middle East, and Argentina (rebolo, dumbek, and bombo, respectfully). The kalimba, considered a percussion instrument, is a soundbox with keys played with the thumbs; the berimbau is a sing-stringed percussion instrument; the anklung is a bamboo instrument popular in Southeast Asia; and the Kora resembles a harp in sound. Although the instruments vary greatly song-to-song, they all share a generally adagio tempo, happy but tender and relaxing. We Are the Boat begins and ends with the soothing sounds of waves, C'est La nuit mon petit ange creates a light and happy mood through voices singing staccato notes in French in the background, while Brecairola per la nena sounds slow and mysterious. Nade gau and O Sey'a are as upbeat of a lullaby you are going to hear.

Children have in impeccable ability to pick up on sounds and tempos, so don't be surprised to see your little one swaying his or her head to the beat or looking to you whenever they hear a new sound, wondering what caused it. With so many new cultural instruments being introduced, they will certainly not lose interest. The songs have repeating melodies, and often either begin with the title or repeat the title in the chorus, so you can sing a few words or at least hum along while you rock your little one to sleep. I noticed this particularly in the Israeli song, Tumbalalaika; the fun-to-say title repeats many times throughout the adagio song featuring piano, accordion, and children's voices singing in choir quality.
 
Song titles:
 
1. Nade gau

2. Acalanto

3. Diarabi

4. Fais nanan m'tchou

5. Atas Atas Amimmi

6. Tumbalalaika

7. O Sey'a

8. Brecairola per la nena

9. C'eset la nuit mon petit ange

10. Die blumeleine sie schlafen

11. Dodo pti baba

12. 'Ndormenzete popin

13. We are the boat (Somos el barco)

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