Rebecca Panitch - The Sounds of Music by L.C. Casterline and illustrations by Lane Yerkes

This book does a good job of incorporating factual information and cutesy language together to describe music. General topics and genres of music are covered throughout the book and are accompanied with colorful illustrations of animals playing instruments. There is a general description of music, and then each page is dedicated to a specific genre of music (such as rock and jazz) or a specific musical instrument (such as a washboard and an accordion). The book also does a good job of describing music from other cultures by describing situations in which one could find that certain type of music. This would be a very useful book in teaching children about music because the animals and cutesy language make it meaningful for the children to remember the content present in the book. The incorporation of culture influences in music is an important topic that this book makes understandable for children.