How to Sing a Song

Starred review from August 1, 2024
This jazzy primer guides readers in noticing surrounding sounds--and feeling the ones that bubble up from within. For their third collaboration--followingHow To Read a Book (2019) andHow To Write a Poem (2023)--Alexander and Sweet are joined by composer, performer, and author Preston (Piscataway). Here, they focus on creating music. The narrative poem begins by calling for an attentive spirit: "Hush. / Now, / turn up your ears / and listen / to the / concert / happening / all around / you." The delicious language refers to a bird's "playful trill" and the "warble of / belching / frogs." Alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, and humor flow through the directives on deep breathing and transforming responses to nature into toe tapping and finger snapping. Ultimately, readers--and the chorus of diverse characters depicted--are instructed to "wail / out each / wondrous / word." These gifted creators bring to life a potentially abstract concept in ways that will appeal to children who instinctively dance, leap, and spin to song. Sweet's note on choosing "op" (optical) art to convey sound is fascinating. Her hypnotic optical illusions weave through and around people in motion, buzzing bees, lively landscapes, and snippets of sheet music--all in glorious collages, punctuated with her signature pink accents. Hand lettering throughout employs different colors, sizes, and saturation to convey volume and pacing. A joyful ode to the manifold pleasures of musical expression. (author's note from Preston)(Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2024
In their third How to... book, Alexander and Sweet (How to Read a Book; How to Write a Poem, rev. 5/23) collaborate with singer-songwriter Preston to guide readers in tuning in to the world of sound around them. The lyrical text in bold hand-drawn block letters filled with color is prominent on each double-page spread. Beginning with the word hush, the authors invite us to begin by being quiet to "turn up your ears / and listen / to the / concert / happening / all around / you." We're encouraged to listen to the sounds of nature such as a "blue jay's / playful trill" and "trees swaying / and shushing." From there the poetic text focuses inward, first through breathing deeply, then through tapping feet and snapping fingers, ending with "sing / a song / loud / and strong." The pacing, vivid language, pleasing alliteration, inventive similes, periodic use of rhyme, and syncopated rhythm create a poem full of sound and music. Sweet's collage art incorporates musical imagery in waves, circles, swirls, and optical art patterns -- full of movement and energy to "make sound visible on the page," as she states in her end note. Preston contributes an end note as well. The overall impact resonates as a call for young people to find their voice and their power through music and beyond. Sylvia Vardell

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

October 18, 2024
Preschool-Grade 2 This exuberant ""inspiration manual"" exhorts readers first to listen to the myriad magical sounds surrounding them before they look inside to find a melody to sing their own songs ""loud and strong."" In a third offering of a lyrical "how to" picture book, once again gloriously illustrated by the acclaimed Sweet, multiaward-winner Alexander collaborates with his performance colleague, Preston, an accomplished singer and composer. Their evocative poetry spins out a sequence of intriguing images reflecting the world's sounds and rhythms, from the ""swaying and shushing"" of trees to ""nature's chorus"" vibrating thunder in a ""sonic moment"" in your heart, inviting you to ""seek the quiet symphony echoing inside."" The lovely, lyrical language is splendidly enlivened by Sweet's energetic, inventive hand lettering; her signature mixed-media art combines layers of paint with textured and patterned collage, containing snippets of printed texts and sheet music, all compiled in a riotous dance of bright colors in richly detailed, lively layouts. This inspiring ode to the joys of singing is an irresistible invitation to lift up your voice.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2024
In their third How to... book, Alexander and Sweet (How to Read a Book; How to Write a Poem,rev. 5/23) collaborate with singer-songwriter Preston to guide readers in tuning in to the world of sound around them. The lyrical text in bold hand-drawn block letters filled with color is prominent on each double-page spread. Beginning with the word hush, the authors invite us to begin by being quiet to "turn up your ears / and listen / to the / concert / happening / all around / you." We're encouraged to listen to the sounds of nature such as a "blue jay's / playful trill" and "trees swaying / and shushing." From there the poetic text focuses inward, first through breathing deeply, then through tapping feet and snapping fingers, ending with "sing / a song / loud / and strong." The pacing, vivid language, pleasing alliteration, inventive similes, periodic use of rhyme, and syncopated rhythm create a poem full of sound and music. Sweet's collage art incorporates musical imagery in waves, circles, swirls, and optical art patterns -- full of movement and energy to "make sound visible on the page," as she states in her end note. Preston contributes an end note as well. The overall impact resonates as a call for young people to find their voice and their power through music and beyond.

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)