| Theatre-related books for kids | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 09:33 pm EST 02/01/22 | |
| In reply to: “B is for Broadway” - kieran 07:57 pm EST 01/29/22 | |
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| My copy of B IS FOR BROADWAY arrived this afternoon. It’s utterly charming, and I have sent a second copy to my granddaughters, Cordelia and Phoebe. Phoebe, my little warrior who has been battling juvenile arthritis for most of her five years, now has COVID. Right now, she’s a little better, watching lots of videos, but I’m sure a new book will go over well. Especially if I sing (off-key) when we read it together on Zoom. Anyway, B IS FOR BROADWAY is a worthy sequel to A IS FOR AUDRA, and got me to thinking about about other theatre-related books for kids. So here are a few. Arthur Robin’s illustrated poems from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, including SKIMBLESHANKS, MACCAVITY, JELLICLE CATS, MUNGOJERRIE AND RUMPLETEASER, and MISTER MISTOFFOLES. Harriet Ziefert’s LIGHT ON BROADWAY. Like A IS FOR AUDRA and B IS FOR BROADWAY, this is an alphabet book, but the text is far more detailed and advanced. I had to abridge it when reading it when the girls were younger. Brian Stokes Mitchell wrote the intro and there’s a CD of him singing a number from THE GLORIOUS ONES about being an actor. Ziefert also wrote a delightful picture book, BACKSTAGE CAT, about the chaos when the star’s cat gets loose during the show. Irving Berlin’s EASTER PARADE got a lovely picture book a few years back, with animals all in their holiday best clothes. Sergio Ruzzier’s AMANDINA is a shy mouse who single-handedly restores a theatre, designs, and performs a show, unaware that the house is slowly filling with an appreciative audience. Mary Hoffman has written a lot of stories (at varying lengths) about a young African American girl named Grace. AMAZING GRACE is a picture book about Grace wanting to play the lead in her school’s PETER PAN. Some of her classmates tell her she can’t: she’s a girl and she’s black. Grace’s mom and Nana tell her to stick to her dreams. Nana takes her to a ballet, where the lead ballerina is a lovely black dancer from Nana’s home, Trinidad. Grace, inspired, nails her audition. Amy Littlesugar’s picture book TREE OF HOPE is set in Harlem during the Depression. Florrie’s dad was an actor, but now had to find other jobs, as so many theatres closed. Then word came Orson Welles was putting on a production at MACBETH at the Lafayette. Definitely for older readers, with some good background about the Depression, the struggle of black actors, and debate among the characters about racism. But hands down, the favorite of my granddaughters is the now out of print GETTING TO KNOW YOU, with delightful Rosemary Wells critters doing excerpts from Rodgers and Hammerstein. If I had a dollar for every time I sang “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair” to Phoebe (who constantly ran and brought the book to me, rubbing her hair to indicate which song she wanted, even back before she could talk much), I could throw a big ATC party. Great, great book. Julie Andrews’ THE GREAT AMERICAN MOUSICAL went over very well when I read it to my girls over Thanksgiving. It’s not a picture book, though each chapter does have a few pictures. A human theatre is about to be demolished; meanwhile the mice, who have their own theatre inside, are trying to put on a show. All Andrews’ mice characters have names inspired by famous musical characters (Curly, Adelaide, Rose, Pippin). Laura, who dedicated her BROADWAY REVIVAL novel to Cordelia and Phoebe, but it’s still a little beyond them :) |
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