SINGING

While it's gratifying that the Exploring Music series on musical instruments includes both the voice and keyboards as separate entities, its brevity and cost ($83.88 for the 6v set) will limit its use to large circulating collections that require separate volumes for the instrumental families. Illustrations (mostly color photos and drawings) are numerous but of uneven quality; the texts are so brief that World Book articles on the same topics are more informative. Singing is oddly padded with several pages on sound systems and recording studio technology; Shipton mentions no outstanding performers of serious vocal forms. Good idea; lost opportunity. Glossary; index (subjects only—no names). (Nonfiction. 8-12)