Picturing Music

Check out a picture book featuring musicians, instruments, singers, and more!

Animal music by Harriet Ziefert

An assortment of animals playing various instruments make different kinds of music.

Imani's music by Sheron Williams

Imani, an African grasshopper, brings music to the new world when he travels aboard a slave ship.

The magnificent piano recital by Marilynn Reynolds
Mole music by David McPhail

Feeling that something is missing in his simple life, Mole acquires a violin and learns to make beautiful, joyful music.

Music is by Lloyd Moss

A rhyming salute to the many ways in which people enjoy music.

Ten instruments take their parts one by one in a musical performance.

Music class today! by David Weinstone

A group of toddlers enjoys a lively music class including, at last, one very shy two-year-old boy.

Boom bah! by Phil Cummings

After a tiny mouse taps a cup with a spoon and creates a noise, everyone wants to join in. Follow the band as it gathers and grows from a solo perfomance to an explosive, full-scale orchestra.

Crash Bang Donkey! by Jill Newton

A donkey's loud musical instruments annoy Farmer Gruff--until he discovers that the music keeps away the pesky crows that have been eating his corn crop.

Jazz baby by Lisa Wheeler

Baby and his family make some jazzy music.

Our marching band by Lloyd Moss

When all the girls and boys in the neighborhood take up musical instruments, at first they produce awful tones, but after much practice they are able to come together as a marching band that brings brassy, classy fun.

In a kingdom where all the musicians are terrible, a king demands they be fed to the royal crocodiles, and as all the refugee musicians race toward the border, their music is so bad that the horse pulling the wagon thinks of a way to get them all playing the same music at the same time.

Jazzmatazz! by Stephanie Calmenson

When a mouse scurries into a house and starts to play jazz music, other animals join in, one by one, each using his or her own particular talent.