My 3 Favorite Singable Books
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Is there anything more pleasing and enjoyable than a good book? Especially music books with engaging visuals, an interesting melody, and that have a really clear song form. There's nothing else I have that will hold a child's attention like a singable book! I almost always include a singable book in my lesson plans.
Some of my favorite singable books have been written in a lyrical way with rhyming text and melodies to them, like Barefoot Books, that has a whole series of musical books that are just excellent.
I’m going to share three of my other top favorite singable books, and if you would like to hear their melodies, be sure to listen to this podcast episode. I’ve found that these are incredibly helpful to have, especially in my early childhood groups.
“Pout-Pout Fish” by Deborah Diesen
Deep in the water where the fish hang out
Lives a glum, gloomy swimmer with an ever-present pout
I’m a pout-pout fish with a pout pout face
So I spread the dreary-wearies all over the place
Blub. Blub. Blub.
This book has a really clear song form, almost as if it is going back and forth between verses and the chorus. I have found that those kinds of books are really challenging to find.
“I Am Enough” by Grace Byers
Like the sun I am here to shine
Like the voice I’m here to sing
Like the bird I am here to fly and soar high over everything
Like the trees I am here to grow
Like the mountains here to stand
Like time I am here to be and be everything I can
This beautiful book has a truly wonderful message with very diverse characters. The melody is from the folk song “How Can I Keep From Singing,” and it repeats throughout the entire book.
The form follows a verse-refrain pattern, sharing a story and then a consistent refrain line.
“Bear Snores On” by Karma Wilson
In a cave in the woods, in his deep dark lair
Through the long, cold winter sleeps a great brown bear
Cuddled in a heap with his eyes shut tight
He sleeps through the day, he sleeps through the night
The cold winds howl, and the night sounds growl
But the bear snores on.
Eventually, the bear gets woken up and becomes upset. So, I continue the same chord progression but make it more frantic sounding. This book follows a verse-refrain form and is really lyrical and beautiful, and one of the few that I have written along with a guitar accompaniment.
Our PDF download for this week is the lyrics and chords for this singable book, which you can find at the end of this post.
If you understand song form, it can really help you write a good melody for a book. Sometimes what I’ll do is put all of the words from a book into a word document, and analyze it to see if I can find any kind of pattern. Occasionally, I need to get a little creative by adding an extra line here or there to keep the melody more consistent.
A dream of mine is to write all kinds of singable books for kids, and I do have one called “The Shy Little Monster.” It’s a really fun book.
If you have any suggestions of a book you would love to hear as a melody, just let me know. You can find me on Instagram, Facebook, musicforkiddos.com, or email me at stephanie@musicforkiddos.com.
Today’s resource:
🎵Download the lyrics + chords of the book Bear Snores On here ↓
*and if you would like to receive the chords + lyrics + mp3 of original songs every month, subscribe to the Song-Of-The-Month Newsletter to get everything right in your inbox.
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