My 3-year-old has pretty good taste in music, if I do say so myself. Having introduced her to everything from ABC to ZZ Top–and oh yes, all those cool kiddie rockers thrown in for good measure–she knows her “Smokey Sings” from “She’s Got Legs.” And my 7-year-old is no musical slouch either, even though her play list is lately to Katy Perry and the soundtrack to “Peter Pan” these days. (An odd combination, and yet it’s diverse.) No matter my girls’ tastes, the one thing that unites them is their interest in music. As we parents have been told from the get-go, expose kids to a passion early on, and watch them take to it like moths to a flame. That’s the idea behind the new picture book from Juno Baby, “The Day the Music Stopped
.” Set in the aptly named Harmonia Springs, the story takes young readers on the adventures of Juno and her friends who learn just happens when their world is silenced. Along the way, kids are introduced to the concepts of rhythm, harmony and melody and the crucial parts they play in music-making. While the text can be wordy on some pages, the storyline is otherwise engaging and the illustrations, eye-popping. As is true when learning a new song, practice makes perfect. And that’s a wonderful, lifelong lesson to teach kids even at a young age.
In a Nutshell: A delightful read that blends the worlds of make-believe and music, this storybook hits all the right notes.
