Let's play by Alborozo

Allen & Unwin, 2014. ISBN 9781743316283.
(Age: 3+) Recommended. Picture book, Music, Sounds. In teaching about the orchestra, the conductor asks the children to listen and watch as they play each of the instruments.
The first to be approached is the timpani or 'timps', the percussion section. When Sergio beats on the largest of the drums, the sound makes blue squiggles in the air and the children dance along. Over the page, Jeffrey is playing the cymbals with a little more enthusiasm than is actually required and the air is filled with bright yellow. Margueritte plays upon the xylophone with squares of different colours filling the pages following. The next pages include trombone, tuba, trumpet, violin, viola and cello. Each of these have blotches of colour over the pages, and these are contrasted with the single line encapsulating the sound of the piccolo.
The piano comes last, and then the whole orchestra makes noise which is portrayed by a combination of all the splotches, lines and swathes of different colours already seen and the conductor keeps the whole together as he controls what is happening with the children.
This is a fun way for younger readers to be introduced to the ideas of the orchestra and its instruments as well as asking them to imagine the sound as colour. For classes where music is being discussed or the instruments of the orchestra shown, or a home where music is being played, then this book will be a wonderful adjunct to the stories being told.
Fran Knight