The Neighborhood Sing-Along
©Nina Crews 2011 Greenwillow Books, HarperCollins Publishers ISBN 9780061850639; ISBN10: 0061850632
Playground songs and classroom songs, silly songs and sweet songs, wake–up songs and bedtime songs… Everyday, children, parents, friends, brothers, and sisters sing songs to one another.
Nina Crews brings her energetic style of illustration to this collection of thirty-four perennial favorites. From “Miss Mary Mack” (watching fireworks from her balcony) to “London Bridge” (built by a brother and sister in the living room) to “Skip to My Lou (in a rolling green park), the songs make this companion to the acclaimed The Neighborhood Mother Goose a treasure for every child in the neighborhood.
Reviews
(starred) A hop, skip and a jump away from The Neighborhood Mother Goose (2003), Crews once again places classic nursery fare in the middle of bright, bustling Brooklyn streets.
This time, however, she sets her sights on songs—34 of them, to be exact. Photos of joyful, ethnically diverse children found in playgrounds, parks and cozy home settings infuse well-known tunes (and some forgotten favorites) with warmth and energy. Many scenes are quite literal: "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" shows youngsters playing baseball in the park. Others have a playful twist: "It's Raining, It's Pouring" has a boy gleefully jumping atop the "old man" in bed (i.e. Daddy), with an appropriately rain-splotched window in the background. "London Bridge" is in fact a bridge built with wooden blocks, and "Alouette" shows a boy racing towards pigeons—the urban equivalent of a lark if ever there was one. Crews also offers familiar digital effects: "Miss Mary Mack" has elephants high in the sky, while "I'm a Little Teapot" shows a rather large teapot with tiny children climbing on it. Sheet music is not included, but an author's note points readers to other books and online resources for help with the tunes.
A collection that begs to be sung in all neighborhoods—city stoops or country front-porch swings alike. (Picture book. 3-6) Kirkus Reviews