New Children’s Books for Musical Kids

Angélica has spent the summer with her family in the Dominican Republic, but now it’s time to return to her Washington Heights home. As a going-away present, her grandfather gives her a family güira, a percussion instrument. When she plays it, she can hear the echoes of her past family members who have played and danced to the güira’s music. When she returns home, she wants to share the joyful sound with everyone, but very few people seem to appreciate the instrument. Can she find a way to share its joy in the States? This is a super fun and vibrant picture book.

The Life-Changing Magic is a new nonfiction picture book series where experts explain their craft to beginners. Nandi Bushnell is an amazing child drummer who got her start at the age of five. She’s since played with the Foo Fighters, Lenny Kravitz, and more. She gives step-by-step drumming advice as well as an autobiography of her life as a drummer. It’s an uplifting guide to playing the drums. It is a bit long with quite a bit of text, so I recommend it for elementary school readers and above.

This colorful nonfiction board book is part of a series that features instruments from different instrument families. Strings describes guitars, banjos, violins, and more. This series would be really great for preschool classrooms. The other books include This Is Music: Drums, This Is Music: Voice, and This Is Music: Horns. I hope there’s a woodwinds board book at some point! (Cries in flute.)

This is a really funny picture book that anthropomorphizes musical notations. Half Note is feeling a bit down. Whole Note is such a beautiful four beats, and Quarter Note jumps along full of energy. Half Note is a measly two beats. She leaves her friends to try and find her purpose in life. Can the composer and other notes show her how valued she is? This would be a great book for kids learning how to read music.

This really fun 100+ page picture book describes 50 instruments. On each page, there’s a silly picture of animals playing the instruments as well as a QR code that kids can scan with a phone to listen to the instrument. Kids can easily spend hours with this book; my daughter does! I appreciate the wide range of instruments featured in the book, from more common instruments like saxophones and violins to ones not often shown in children’s books, like theremins and kalimbas.

This middle grade nonfiction shows how music has been used as a means of protest and activism. It’s divided into eight sections: “Earth Revolution,” “Indigenous Existence Is Resistance,” “Fight the Power” (racial justice), “Nothing About Us Without Us” (disability rights), “I Was Born This Way” (LGBTQ+ activism), “Respect” (gender equality), “Give Peace a Chance” (war protests), and “Stand by Me” (human rights). Each section describes musical activists and protest movements of both the past and present. It’s a great introduction to activism for tweens.

Young music lovers can carry around their books in this music-themed book sleeve. $16+

My daughter started piano lessons a few months ago. It’s so lovely to hear her play, except when she turns the keyboard on the fireworks setting.

If you’d like to read more of my kidlit reviews, I’m on Instagram @BabyLibrarians, X @AReaderlyMom, Bluesky @AReaderlyMom, and blog irregularly at Baby Librarians. You can also read my Book Riot posts. If you’d like to drop me a line, my email is kingsbury.margaret@gmail.com.

All the best,
Margaret Kingsbury