The Neighborhood Sing-Along

by Nina Crews, Nina Crews (Illustrator)

Overview

Playground songs and classroom songs, silly songs and sweet songs, wake-up songs and bedtime songs . . .

Every day, 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 every neighborhood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061850639
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/10/2011
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	884,589
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 10.60(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nina Crews is a highly acclaimed author-illustrator and the daughter of Donald Crews and Ann Jonas. Her picture book The Neighborhood Mother Goose was an ALA Notable Book, a School Library Journal Best Book, and a Parenting Magazine Book of the Year. She is also the author and artist of One Hot Summer Day, I'm Not Small, Snowball, and other titles. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Nina Crews is a highly acclaimed author-illustrator and the daughter of Donald Crews and Ann Jonas. Her picture book The Neighborhood Mother Goose was an ALA Notable Book, a School Library Journal Best Book, and a Parenting Magazine Book of the Year. She is also the author and artist of One Hot Summer Day, I'm Not Small, Snowball, and other titles. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

As with The Neighborhood Mother Goose, Crews pairs traditional songs and nursery rhymes with vibrant photographs and digital collages of children in a fresh urban setting. A boy plays with a toy train while waiting with his mother on a subway platform on a spread that displays the lyrics to "I've Been Working on the Railroad"; three tiny children play near an enormous ceramic teapot for "I'm a Little Teapot"; and a young "Miss Mary Mack" (wearing the requisite black dress with silver buttons) watches elephants fly amid Fourth of July fireworks. A jubilant and contemporary treatment of well-known classics. Ages 3–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

K-Gr 3—Crews's compilation of mostly familiar children's songs is a follow-up and companion to her well-received The Neighborhood Mother Goose (Greenwillow, 2004). Lyrics are set against full-page photographs of urban streets, parks, and playgrounds—interiors and exteriors, recognizable and obscure—and are peopled with a multicultural array of smiling children. Some of the photographs show scenes from ordinary life (these are the most effective); others have been digitally manipulated with collage effect in order to better reflect the lyrics. Among the 30-plus selections are popular and even ubiquitous tunes such as "The Alphabet Song," "The Wheels on the Bus," and "Miss Mary Mack," along with the more obscure "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and "Down by the Riverside." The selections are not organized in any specific way; it would be helpful to have an alphabetical index as was done in the Mother Goose book. These comments aside, a valuable collective cultural inheritance resides in these songs, and though there are other, more comprehensive volumes available (some including the music), this bright, attractive package is a good introduction. A helpful listing of resources for more songs and help with the tunes of those included appears on the copyright page.—Lisa Egly Lehmuller, St. Patrick's Catholic School, Charlotte, NC

School Library Journal

A hop, skip and a jump away fromThe 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 inallneighborhoods—city stoops or country front-porch swings alike. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews