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Help – Favorite books on Composers and Artists
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Hello all,
I am trying to compose a list of favorite living books that tell about the life of famous composers and artists. Will you please help? I would like books for older chldren as well as younger ones.
TIA,
~jacqleene
Opal Wheeler’s books are on my list for this year – they are recommended by Veritas Press and you can find them on Amazon now.
My younger love the Katie series for artists. Here is a link to Katie and the Mona Lisa, we have almost all of the books!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439935083?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links
These free online composer books for children, are very good: http://homeschoolcommons.com/2011/10/famous-composers-for-children/
Perhaps not ‘living’ but my kids love the Getting to Know the Famous Composers and Artists series. They read them on their own for fun. Even my 12-yr-olds devour them. We also like the artist study kits here at SCM.
I have to second the Opal Wheeler books, especially for elementary aged children. My daughter loves me to read them to her and we love listening to the CD that comes with it.
I wanted to put a plug in for the artist materials offered by SCM. My children really enjoyed the story about Giotto (they are 5 and 6).
This is one in a wonderful OOP art series for children:
Elizabeth Ripley wrote many artist bios.
There are also bios in the old Signature and Childhood of Famous Americans of composers.
In the world of newer books, these are very good. They include a CD of the music.
And patrons of my library enjoy this and others by the same publisher:
And yes, Opal Wheeler is my favorite. She also wrote bios of Giotto and Millet. The Katie series is precious. Benjamin West and His Cat, Grimalkin by Marguerite Henry, and the PSP are not to be missed.
My daughter’s violin instructor let us borrow Stories of Women composers for Young Musicians by Catherine Wolff Kendall. I think this book could easily be used with older students as well as younger.
We were also able to borrow The Great Composers by Jeremy Nicholas. I am not sure how I feel about it, though truth be told I’ve only flip it open to various points trying to get a grasp of it’s “flavor”. I think it would either need to be read by a high school student or aloud to those somewhat younger as there may be areas that might need to be skipped. However, I’m not sure it counts as a “living” book.
It seems that true living books may be harder to find for the older crowd. This was part of the impetus for gathering this list together – to have it to share with those in my local CM group. We have a few younger children, but there are also several of us who have older elementary through high school ages. Does anyone have any experience with this book? How about any suggestions for really good high school level living books on composers or artists. I have added the ones appropriate for younger students that I didn’t already have.
Thank you all for your suggestions.
~jacqleene
Emily Cottrill has some art suggestions, many which have been made already, on her site. The Night Watch about Rembrandt is excellent.
http://www.livingbookslibrary.com/2012/02/top-living-art-books.html
When I get home I’ll try to check composer bios for olders on my shelves.
Composers/musicians for olders- middle school through high school. All of these are in a wonderfully narrative style written decades ago and probably all OOP but some choices nonetheless.
Deep-Flowing Brook: The Story of Johann Sebastian Bach by Goss
The Music Maker (Bach). By Albus
Trumpeter’s Tale: The Story of Young Louis Armstrong by Eaton
Beethoven by Mirsky
The Story of Beethoven by Kaufmann
Brahms by Mirsky
Antonine Dvorak: Composer from Bohemia by Purdy
Chopin by Gronowicz
The Story of Stephen Foster by Douty
He Heard America Sing (Stephen Foster). By Purdy
The Story of George Gershwin by Ewen
Gilbert & Sullivan by Purdy
Song of the North (Grieg) by Purdy
The Story of Haydn by Kaufmann
Haydn by Mirsky
The Story of Mozart by Kaufmann
Mozart by Komroff
Mozart by Mirsky
Paderewski by Kellogg
Duet (Clara and Robert Schumann) by Kyle
Stormy Victory (Tchaikovsky) by Purdy
HTH
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