This highly user-friendly primer gives kids both a macro and micro lesson about jazz music.
Papa kitty wakes up his children with the exciting news that they’re going to visit a jazz band. After a yummy breakfast, off they go. First, they encounter a hip raccoon who plays a mean bass. Brother and sister cat also observe a fox playing drums, a goose tickling the ivories and a squirrel playing a groovy guitar riff. The story explores a wide variety of instruments, including the vibraphone, trumpets, trombones, three different saxophones, the flute and the clarinet. Turning the page activates instrument demos, though some launch more quickly than others. Touching band members elicits repeated demo performances, and if tapped all at once, they play at the same time. The young felines offer commentary when tapped, and the text itself provides helpful insight into the basic theory of jazz and the various categories of instruments that comprise a jazz band (brass and rhythm sections, for example). One page even highlights various sections as they chime in. The clever bonus games prompt kids to guess which instrument is making which sound, and it also quizzes them by asking them to match the names to the instruments.
A winning app that could easily be deemed the jazz version of The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Smooth. (iPad storybook app. 2-8)
