I know that I’ve been talking about books for the music classroom a lot recently so I thought I’d share some of my current favorites! If you saw my post from last week, I go over some different ways to use books in the music classroom. These books are all great books that teach a musical concept. Finding a great piece of children’s literature to teach an actual musical concept is not easy to find, but these are some awesome ones to add to your classroom. (Full disclosure: some affiliate links. Won’t change your price and I get a small kick back. No pressure!)

Family Dynamics Embrace Your Sound

Author: Courtney Vowell Woodward
Illustrator: Thu Vu
ISBN: 979-8985460704
Published 2022
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The illustrations in this book are adorable and a perfect way to introduce the instrument families. This cute story will really help students know the differences in how they are played. 

Tiger Tempo

Author: Vicky Weber
Illustrator: Geneviève Viel-Taschereau
ISBN: 978-1734906226
Published 2020
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What I love about this book is that it talks about tempo with one animal. Yes some animals are faster and it’s great to help students understand fast vs. slow, but having this as the next step to show that we can CHANGE and go fast and slow is amazing. This book also has an illustrated ‘the tiger fell’ page if your students aren’t correct when practicing keeping the beat at different speeds. 

When Step Met Skip

Author: Vicky Weber
Illustrator: Geneviève Viel-Taschereau
ISBN: 979-1734906271
Published 2021
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A cute book, teaching skips and steps is an important part for teaching students to read notes on the lines and spaces. Even as you introduce Sol and Mi, the concept of a skip is important. The great visuals on this book will really help drive home that concept.

Here Come High Notes

Author: Marin Marka
Illustrator: Alexandra Tatu
ISBN: 978-1081537487
Published 2019
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This is a cute story to help your students learn which lines and spaces have which name. They are cute little fuzzy notes and is a great book to enforce those treble clef note names.

Look Out for Low Notes

Author: Marin Marka
Illustrator: Alexandra Tatu
ISBN: 979-8415051649
Published 2022
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A companion book for Here Come the High Notes, this book focuses on the bass clef notes. One character makes a come back! 

EGDBF The Musical Yak (Musical Land Series)

Author, Illustrator: Katie Terrell Ramos
ISBN: 979-8577123109 
Published 2021
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This is another treble clef book, this time featuring one character with a memorable name! The author has written a song which appears multiple times throughout the book to help us remember the lines and the notes that go with them.

FACE The Musical Flamingo (Musical Land Series)

Author, Illustrator: Katie Terrell Ramos
ISBN: 979-8401389299
Published 2022
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This book is the companion to EGBDF The Musical Yak. Read this one second since our friend the Yak comes back. Instead of a song, this one has a clave rhythm for the flamingo and your students won’t be able to forget how EGBDF and FACE go together. 

The Stories of Musical Instruments

Author: Stepanka Sekaninova 
Illustrator: Jakum Cenki
ISBN: 978-8000059327
Published 2021
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This book has small illustrations of hundreds of different instruments from slit drums, to didgeridoo to the ghatam to the sousaphone. Set in collage style pages of families, it introduces instruments and musicians who played some of these instruments with a little bit about each one. Anyone interested in learning about the Crwth? It’s on page 19. 

Around the World in 80 Musical Instruments

Author: Nancy Dickmann
Illustrator: Sue Downing
ISBN: 978-1913519919
Published 2022
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This awesome book goes through instrument families from around the world focusing on percussion, strings and winds. It has a fold out family tree. My favorite part of the book however, is the last section which focuses on some of the less common instruments out there: Moog synthesizer, yaybahar, and even melody road! 

Roar-chestra! A Wild Story of Musical Word

Author: Robert Heidbreder
Illustrator: Dušan Petričić
ISBN: 978-1525302749
Published 2021
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This fun book shows a conductor in front of several animals. Each musical word is on a page with the conductor directing a blank space. The following page is the animals acting out that word with descriptive words to accompany it. 

I hope this gives you some great ideas! If you are looking for more concept books, check out www.theultimatemusicedbooklist.com