ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
PRESCHOOL
Gopal, Jyoti Rajan

One Sweet Song

40 pp. | Candlewick/Walker US | January, 2024 | Trade ISBN 9781536219814 $18.99
(2) PS Illustrated by Sonia Sánchez. Gopal and Sanchez celebrate impromptu community-making through music: "One sweet song / for heart and soul. / One sweet song / to make us whole." In a scene recalling balcony performances in places like New York City during the COVID-19 shutdown, someone plays the flute by an open window; a girl listening from the building across the way chimes in with a triangle. This, in turn, spurs a third musician, then a fourth, and so on. More join in with everything from cello, violin, ghatam, and morsing to unconventional instruments that will cause audiences to giggle (pots and pans, bottles filled with dried beans, singing into a remote control "microphone," and even a horn made of a funnel and tube). The rhyming, rhythmic text counts up to ten participants and back down to one, first animating readers and then bringing them back to a quieter, peaceful state that gives this book a dual function as a bedtime story. Colorful painted and digital illustrations show individual lines, an almost scribbly texture, and imperfectly drawn shapes, all of which make the pictures buzz with energy and movement. Even if they didn't personally experience these types of balcony performances, readers will understand the way music-making can bring people together.
Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

RELATED 

PRESCHOOL

The Farmer and the Circus
by Frazee, Marla
PRESCHOOL

Bird House
by Gómez, Blanca
PRESCHOOL

The Crow and the Peacock
by Fernihough, Jo
PRESCHOOL

Something's Wrong!
by John, Jory
PRESCHOOL

Grandpa Across the Ocean
by Yum, Hyewon
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?