Alison LeBeda - World of Music: Australia, Hawaii, and the Pacific

 World of Music: Australia, Hawaii, and the Pacific is a nonfiction book by Deborah Underwood. While the book is nonfiction and may not seem as fun as fiction books about animals playing musical instruments or songbooks, this is a relatively short and very informative book about music from an unfamiliar part of the world. The World of Music collection dedicates books to different regions of the world and introduces children to geography, culture, and musical instruments from all over the globe. With photographs and maps of real people and places, it helps children understand how music is made all over the world, and while not every culture makes music in the same way, music is something that everyone can enjoy no matter where you are in the world. In a music classroom, this would be a really good book to teach by also having the students sing some traditional songs from Hawaii or Oceania, or even watching videos of natives making music with the instruments from their culture. As I mentioned in a previous post, it is very important to move away from the "Western Classical" canon that we, as educators and musicians, tend to put first so we can become more inclusive to people from all different cultures and backgrounds, and teaching this at an early age can help establish an open mindset moving into the future and help children become more open to all kinds of music, not just what is familiar to them.