HOW TO SING A SONG

This jazzy primer guides readers in noticing surrounding sounds—and feeling the ones that bubble up from within.

For their third collaboration—following How To Read a Book (2019) and How To Write a Poem (2023)—Alexander and Sweet are joined by composer, performer, and author Preston (Piscataway). Here, they focus on creating music. The narrative poem begins by calling for an attentive spirit: “Hush. / Now, / turn up your ears / and listen / to the / concert / happening / all around / you.” The delicious language refers to a bird’s “playful trill” and the “warble of / belching / frogs.” Alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, and humor flow through the directives on deep breathing and transforming responses to nature into toe tapping and finger snapping. Ultimately, readers—and the chorus of diverse characters depicted—are instructed to “wail / out each / wondrous / word.” These gifted creators bring to life a potentially abstract concept in ways that will appeal to children who instinctively dance, leap, and spin to song. Sweet’s note on choosing “op” (optical) art to convey sound is fascinating. Her hypnotic optical illusions weave through and around people in motion, buzzing bees, lively landscapes, and snippets of sheet music—all in glorious collages, punctuated with her signature pink accents. Hand lettering throughout employs different colors, sizes, and saturation to convey volume and pacing.

A joyful ode to the manifold pleasures of musical expression.