“Music is the explosive expression of humanity,” says the great contemporary musician and songwriter Billy Joel. “It’s something we are all touched by.”
Certainly, we’ve experienced our kids taking delight in and comfort from music (and felt the same for ourselves). We’ve witnessed young people both creating and quietly absorbing music. The tot banging a spoon against a pan — and then alerting to birdsong. The middle-schooler memorizing a popular song and singing it with a friend. The teen listening carefully as she picks out notes on a guitar. My husband and I often sang to our daughter when she was a baby, and we loved listening to her sing to herself, exploring her own voice.
Scientists speculate that music — clapping, drumming, vocalizing — predated language and helped strengthen social bonds. They have found 40,000-year-old bone flutes. Today, there are many styles of music, many types of musicians. These books celebrate some of the most contemporary — and the way that music continues to connect families, communities and countries.
Tots to age 7
“My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!”
- By Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo
- Illustrated by Tiffany Everett
- Jabberwocky/Sourcebooks, 2025, $18.99
Rock stars Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo — married for 44 years — team up to spotlight music and family. No surprise, their text rollicks like a high-energy song, with accompanying art by Tiffany Everett depicting grandparents of all cultures exuberantly sharing various types of music with the youngest generation. The key, as the book points out, is to do what you love with those you love. Grandparents and grandkids are singing “loud and proud,” bopping on pots and drums or just sitting together quietly. As the text reflects: “It doesn’t matter what [grandparents] look like or what job they do, because their most important job is … Loving You!” The musical duo dedicated the book to their three grandchildren.
“Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage”
- By Lisa Rogers
- Illustrated by Il Sung Na
- ASB/Random House, 2023, $18.99
John Cage is one of the 20th century’s most important composers, but initially many were resistant to his music. They considered it merely noise! Cage loved to listen to the “sounds around [him],” a “garbage truck screeching … balls bouncing, dog tags clinking.” It was all music to him. Author Lisa Rogers asks readers to listen and perhaps even experiment like Cage. Youngsters might sit before a piano in silence or create music from blenders and juicers “whirring and spinning and swishing.” Kids will be intrigued by such ideas and by Il Sung Na’s digital art, which uses color, shape and pattern to visually represent Cage’s music. This innovative picture book biography is a tribute, indeed, to Cage’s own curiosity and ingenuity.
“Playing at the Border”
- By Joanna Ho
- Illustrated by Teresa Martinez
- HarperCollins, 2021, $19.99
Internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma has long used music to create bridges between cultures, to help create positive change. This book features some of those experiences. He collaborated with a landscape architect to design a music garden in Toronto. He brought together musicians from along the Silk Road — a 4,000-mile ancient trade route spanning three continents — to perform and record together. But this lyrical nonfiction narrative’s primary focus is Ma’s solo on the banks of the Rio Grande in 2019. He played, “feet planted on the soil of one nation [USA], eyes gazing at the shores of another [Mexico].” With his cello named Petunia, Ma wanted to reach the people of both countries. As the back matter states, “playing at the border was a powerful symbolic response to the anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies pushed by the president of the United States and his supporters during this time.” Ma’s activism and this beautiful book offer one possible and unifying path through the current fractious political landscape.
Tweens
“The Great Dance-On”
- By Mary Rand Hess and Randy Preston
- Illustrated by Marilena Perilli
- Free Spirit, 2025, $18.99
This lovely, lively chapter book models self-advocacy and the feelings of joy and empowerment that come from authentic self-expression. Ms. Tharrington’s third graders are excited about their first classroom dance-off. But Nevaeh and Hanh aren’t sure they want to participate in a mandatory contest. They don’t know any “cool moves,” they admit to one another. Their idea of dancing is doing goofy steps with their sisters (Nevaeh) and dogs (Hanh). Instead of becoming increasingly anxious, though, and finding excuses, the two explain their worries to the teacher. Open to change, Ms. Tharrington suggests that the whole class evolve a plan that ensures everyone feels included and comfortable. The students decide to hold a non-competitive dance party. Students participate as they wish, even if it’s just to “cheer and keep the beat.” And seek out the special bonus provided by bestselling authors Mary Rand Hess and Randy Preston in the back matter.
There’s a link to a mini-musical version of the story, with script and song recordings. It’s perfect for kids to act out in the classroom or with friends! And look for Preston’s first picture book next month. “The First Drum I Ever Heard” owes much to this Maryland author’s musical experience as a singer-songwriter and composer.
“Kid Musicians: True Tales of Childhood, from Entertainers, Songwriters, and Stars”
- By Robin Stevenson
- Illustrated by Allison Steinfeld
- Quirk, 2024, $14.99
Cher was a dyslexic child who drifted through school but could sing the lyrics of a song after hearing it only once. Beyonce loved to practice with friends as part of all-girl bands called Girls Tyme and Destiny’s Child. Taylor Swift grew up on a Christmas tree farm, and Joni Mitchell battled polio as a child.
The engaging bios in “Kid Musicians” focus on the childhoods of 16 musicians and songwriters, including Harry Styles, Bob Marley and Dolly Parton. Many wrestled with poverty, problematic families and racism, but they all clung to their dreams, worked hard and have brought pleasure to millions.
Teens
“Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk”
- By Kathleen Hanna
- Ecco/HarperCollins
- 2024, $19.99
Punk icon Kathleen Hanna shares tales of her childhood, feminist band Bikini Kill and current life in this compelling memoir. She writes of her keen awareness of sound as a kid. Her feet on wooden stairs, the dog panting, her father yelling. She channeled that awareness into song, through which she, as frontwoman, and other members of Bikini Kill expressed their insights and feelings.
They called for freedom from gender strictures and protested the patriarchy and violence against girls and women. Hanna’s memoir also explores her co-founding of the electrifying Riot Grrrl movement in the early 90s. The fierce, exciting blossoming of female voices, zines, music and creativity fostered by this movement impacts us to this day.
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Mary Quattlebaum lives in Washington, D.C. and is the author of 30 award-winning children’s books, most recently Queen Elizabeth II, an early reader biography. She teaches in the graduate program in writing for children at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, writes frequently for The Washington Post and is a popular school and conference speaker. maryquattlebaum.com
