Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books
Age Level: 3-6 years old


A Neighborhood Walk, a Musical Journey
By: Pilar Winter Hill
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
"Honk-honk, tweet-tweet, patter-patter!" This sweet, fun read-aloud drums up nostalgia for all...

A Tisket, a Tasket
By: Ella Fitzgerald
Age Level: 3-6 years old
The song made famous by jazz great Ella Fitzgerald in the 1930s has been re-created, re-...

Bats in the Band
By: Brian Lies
Age Level: 3-6 years old
When the bats awaken from winter hibernation, not only do their stomachs grumble, they are...

Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane
By: Carole Boston Weatherford
Age Level: 3-6 years old
John's music began when he listened to the music in his childhood. Semi-abstract...

Ben's Trumpet
By: Rachel Isadora
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Ben wants to be a trumpeter, but he plays only an imaginary instrument until one of the...

Bird & Diz
By: Gary Gallo
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Presents a rhythmic tribute to Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and their creation of bebop....

Charlie Parker Played Be Bop
By: Chris Raschka
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Inspired by jazz great Charlie Parker, rhythm and repetition are woven together to create a...

Dooby Dooby Moo
By: Doreen Cronin
Age Level: 3-6 years old
When Duck reads about an upcoming talent show at the county fair, he organizes the animals on...

Drum City
By: Thea Guidone
Age Level: 3-6 years old
A young boy begins banging on pots and pans in his front yard, enticing other children to join...

Ear Worm!
By: Jo Knowles
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Fiction
One summer day, as Little Worm heads out to play, he discovers he has a song stuck in his head...

Esquivel! Space-Age Sound Artist
By: Susan Wood
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Meet Juan García Esquivel whose contributions to music can still be heard. From his early days...

Every Little Thing
By: Bob Marley, Cedella Marley
Age Level: 3-6 years old
In this illustrated version of Bob Marley's song, a young boy, with the encouragement of three...

Forever Young
By: Bob Dylan
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Since it first appeared on the 1974 album Planet Waves, "Forever Young" has been one of Bob...

Gus and Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar
By: Keith Richards
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Long before there was a band, there was a boy: a young Keith Richards, who was introduced to the...

Hip Cat
By: Jonathan London
Age Level: 3-6 years old
A cool cat named Oobie-Do moves to San Francisco, plays his saxophone and works as a short order...

Hip Hop Dog
By: Chris Raschka
Age Level: 3-6 years old
A mutt tells reveals a "doggy allegory" and how he went from "the saddest and the...

I Got the Rhythm
By: Connie Scholfield-Morrison
Age Level: 3-6 years old
On a sunny day, a child and her mother go for a walk in the park. The rhythm the girl hears in...

Jazz Baby
By: Lisa Wheeler
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Baby and his family make some jazzy music.

Kenya's Song
By: Linda Trice
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Kenya is looking for a favorite song to share with her class. She and her father attend a...

Let It Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals
By: Ashley Bryan
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Three well known spirituals, "This Little Light of Mine," "When the Saints Go Marching In," and...

Let's Play!
By: Gabriel Alborozo
Age Level: 3-6 years old
From the tinkling tones of the tiny piccolo to the majesty of the grand piano or the deep...

Little Pig Joins the Band
By: David Hyde Costello
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Little Pig has trouble keeping up with his older--and bigger--brothers and sisters. When they...

Little Rosetta and the Talking Guitar: The Musical Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Woman Who Invented Rock and Roll
By: Charnelle Pinkney Barlow
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
A picture-book biography of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the woman who invented rock and roll — a warm...

Manuelo, the Playing Mantis
By: Don Freeman
Age Level: 3-6 years old
A praying mantis who longs to make music gets help from a spider name Debby Webster.

Mole Music
By: David McPhail
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Feeling that something is missing in his simple life, Mole acquires a violin and learns to make...

Music, Music for Everyone
By: Vera Williams
Age Level: 3-6 years old
When Rosa's grandmother becomes sick, Rosa comes up with an idea that not only makes...

Musical Instruments Series
By: Xist Publishing
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Describes instruments, their parts, the different types, and how they are played.

Olivia Forms a Band
By: Ian Falconer
Age Level: 3-6 years old
When Olivia learns that there will be no band at the evening's fireworks display, she decides to...

One Love
By: Cedella Marley
Age Level: 3-6 years old
In this illustrated version of Bob Marley's song, a young girl enlists her friends, family, and...

Peter and the Wolf
By: Chris Raschka, Sergei Prokofiev
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Retells the orchestral fairy tale in which a boy ignores his grandfather's warnings and captures...

Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum
By: Robert Andrew Parker
Age Level: 3-6 years old
The story of young Art Tatum, who became one of the all-time greats of jazz.

Punk Farm
By: Jarrett J. Krosoczka
Age Level: 3-6 years old
At the end of the day, while Farmer Joe gets ready for bed, his animals tune their instruments...

Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
By: Sergei Prokofiev
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Despite Grandfather's warning about wolves in the forest, Peter and his animal friends capture...

Shake, Rattle & Turn That Noise Down!
By: Mark Alan Stamaty
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Recounts the author's childhood determination to emulate Elvis Presley after being inspired by...

The Orchestra Pit
By: Johanna Wright
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Even though the green-spotted snake wanders into the wrong pit – an orchestra pit – he takes the...

This Jazz Man
By: Karen Ehrhardt
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Nonfiction
Presents an introduction to jazz music and nine well-known jazz musicians, set to the rhythm of...

This Land is Your Land
By: Woodie Guthrie
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Guthrie's folk song begins a journey across the United States. Highly detailed, richly colored...

Tito Puente, Mambo King
By: Monica Brown
Age Level: 3-6 years old

Uptown
By: Bryan Collier
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Join a boy as he takes you uptown to introduce his Harlem home, filled with excitement, sounds,...

When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson
By: Pam Muñoz Ryan
Age Level: 3-6 years old
Marian Anderson was an extraordinary contralto whose talent was celebrated in Europe long before...

Woody Guthrie: Poet of the People
By: Bonnie Christensen
Age Level: 3-6 years old
An introductory biography of famous folk singer Woody Guthrie presented as a picture book with a...
Age Level: 6-9 years old


A Band of Angels
By: Deborah Hopkinson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Ella Sheppard was one of the original Jubilee Singers from what is now known as Fisk University...

A Good Night for Ghosts
By: Mary Pope Osborne
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Jack and Annie go to New Orleans on All Saint's Day in 1915 to find a young musician named Louis...

A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice
By: Nadia Hohn
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Louise Bennett Coverley, better known as Miss Lou, was a Jamaican poet and entertainer who used...

Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band
By: Kwame Alexander
Age Level: 6-9 years old
When a jazz-loving rooster sets his sights on winning a barnyard talent show, he realizes he can...

Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay
By: Susan Hood
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A town built on a landfill. A community in need of hope. A girl with a dream. A man with a...

Banjo Granny
By: Sarah Martin Busse, Jacqueline Martin
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Owen’s singing, banjo-playing Granny goes out “to cross one river, one mountain, and a desert”...

Boys Dancing: From School Gym to Theater Stage
By: George Ancona
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Elementary school-age boys start at the beginning of the school year to study with Pamela at the...

Bremen Town Musician
By: Jacob Grimm
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
This is the classic tale of four beleaguered animals—a donkey who can no longer work, a hound...

Can You Hear It?
By: William Lach
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Introduces children to music through works of art. Pictures set the scene for the music, and...

Celia Cruz: Queen of Salsa
By: Veronica Chambers
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Celia Cruz began singing on the streets of Havana as a child. She grew up to become a legendary...

Change Sings: A Children's Anthem
By: Amanda Gorman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Poetry
As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the...

Dark Was the Night: Blind Willie Johnson's Journey to the Stars
By: Gary Golio
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The story of Blind Willie Johnson — the legendary Texas musician whose song "Dark Was the Night...

Dizzy
By: Jonah Winter
Age Level: 6-9 years old
John Birks Gillespie was an angry child from an abusive home. He was able to overcome huge...

Django: World's Greatest Jazz Guitarist
By: Bonnie Christensen
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Born into a poor Roma family, Django Reinhardt's musical talent takes him to perform on European...

Drum Dream Girl: One Girl's Courage Changed Music
By: Margarita Engle
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Follows a girl in the 1920s as she strives to become a drummer, despite being continually...

Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite
By: Anna Harwell Celenza
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Duke Ellington's collaboration with a classically trained colleague resulting in unique...

Elizabeth's Song
By: Michael Wenberg
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A fictionalized account of how an 11-year-old girl, Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten, saved to buy her...

Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa
By: Andrea Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9 years old
From her early days in Harlem to becoming the First Lady of Jazz, the story of Ella Fitzgerald...

Ellington Was Not a Street
By: Kadir Nelson, Ntozake Shange
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Handsome illustrations of Shange's evocative poem, "Mood Indigo," pay homage to the many African...

Elvis: The Story of the Rock and Roll King
By: Bonnie Christensen
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A picture-book biography of a poor kid from Tupelo, Mississippi, who became an American musical...

Esquivel! Space-Age Sound Artist
By: Susan Wood
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Meet Juan García Esquivel whose contributions to music can still be heard. From his early days...

Fab Four Friends
By: Susanna Reich
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Through paintings and text, this book traces the history and rise in popularity of the Beatles...

Finding the Music/En pos de la musica
By: Jennifer Torres
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Reyna accidentally breaks her abuelo’s vihuela and tries to fix it before her family finds out....

Flowers for Sarajevo
By: John McCutcheon
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Drasko is Milo’s son who carries on his father’s flower business even after things in Sarajevo...

For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart
By: Elizabeth Rusch, Steve Johnson
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The life of Wolfgang’s older sister, Maria Anna, follows the form of a piano sonata which...

Freedom in Congo Square
By: Carole Boston Weatherford
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Join the rhythmic countdown to Sunday afternoon, the one time when enslaved Africans in 19th...

Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin
By: Chieri Uegaki
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Inspired by memories of the time she spent in Japan with her grandfather, a professional...

Harlem
By: Walter Dean Myers
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Experienced readers will enjoy this stunning and sophisticated visit to Harlem in word and image...

Harlem Renaissance Party
By: Faith Ringgold
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Lonnie travels back in time to meet many of the artists, writers, and musicians of the Harlem...

Harlem's Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills
By: Renee Watson
Age Level: 6-9 years old

How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz
By: Jonah Winter
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Jelly Roll Morton became – to his grandmother’s horror – a musician in New Orleans, developing...

I Know a Shy Fellow Who Swallowed a Cello
By: Barbara Garriel
Age Level: 6-9 years old
An adaptation of the folk rhyme "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly," featuring musical...

Jasmine Toguchi, Drummer Girl
By: Debbi Michiko Florence
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Third-grader, Jasmine Toguchi, wants to enter her school’s talent show, but what talent could...

John Coltrane's Giant Steps
By: Chris Raschka
Age Level: 6-9 years old
John Coltrane's musical composition is performed by a box, a snowflake, some raindrops, and a...

Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed
By: Leslea Newman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Moshe Cotel was a composer who lived in a noisy building on a noisy street in a noisy city. But...

Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century
By: Carole Boston Weatherford
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Born in the Mississippi Delta in 1927, the always musically gifted Mary Violet Leontyne Price...

Libba: The Magnificent Musical Life of Elizabeth Cotton
By: Laura Veirs
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotton heard music all around her growing up in North Carolina. She became a...

Listen to the Birds: An Introduction to Classical Music
By: Ana Gerhard
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Provides an introduction to classical music, describing how birds have inspired composers...

Little Melba and Her Big Trombone
By: Katheryn Russell-Brown
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Melba Doretta Liston loved the sounds of music from as far back as she could remember....

Little Rat Makes Music
By: Monica Bang-Campbell
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Little Rat wants to be musical and play an instrument just as do the other members of her family...

M Is for Music
By: Kathleen Krull
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
The alphabet is used as a device to introduce the vocabulary for a range of musical styles as...

Mahalia Jackson: Walking with Kings and Queens
By: Nina Nolan
Age Level: 6-9 years old
This brief, broad introduction to gospel great, Mahalia Jackson, is sure to inform as well as...

Max Found Two Sticks
By: Brian Pinkney
Age Level: 6-9 years old
It was a day when Max didn't feel like talking to anyone. He just sat on his front steps and...

Moses Goes to a Concert
By: Isaac Millman
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Moses and his schoolmates, all deaf, attend a concert where the orchestra's percussionist is...

Mr. Putter and Tabby Toot the Horn
By: Cynthia Rylant
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Mr. Putter's neighbor, Mrs. Teaberry, decides that they should join a band, but finding the...

Music for Mr. Moon
By: Erin Stead
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Harriet just wants to play her cello alone. But when she accidentally knocks the lonely moon...

My Name Is Celia/Me llamo Celia
By: Monica Brown
Age Level: 6-9 years old

Odetta: The Queen of Folk
By: Stephen Alcorn
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The life and music of Odetta who became an influential folksinger and civil rights activist is...

Penny and Her Song
By: Kevin Henkes
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Henkes' first easy reader introduces Penny and her mouse family in two appealing chapters. Penny...

Piano Starts Here: The Young Art Tatum
By: Robert Andrew Parker
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Art Tatum came from modest beginnings and was nearly blind, but his passion for the piano and...

Play, Mozart, Play!
By: Peter Sís
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was not only a famous composer and a musical genius; his father turned...

Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll! Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll
By: Tonya Bolden
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
A picture book biography of the life, career, and impact of 20th-century blues and gospel singer...

Roly-Polies
By: Mónica Carretero
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
Beneath a large cabaret theater lived a huge family of roly-polies. The cabaret was open at...

Simple Gifts
By: Chris Raschka
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A familiar traditional Shaker hymn has been interpreted in bold, semi-abstract, jewel-toned...

Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat: Ella Fitzgerald
By: Eileen L. Ordover
Age Level: 6-9 years old
From a poor girl who had "a dancing beat in her feet ever since she was a bitty girl"...

Song in the City
By: Daniel Bernstrom
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
A young girl, filled with the sounds of her beloved city, shares a song with her grandmother...

Sweet Music in Harlem
By: Debbie Taylor
Age Level: 6-9 years old
CJ's uncle, a well known jazz musician, has lost his signature hat and sends the boy out to...

Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm
By: Karen Deans
Age Level: 6-9 years old
The story of a group of African American orphans who played in their school's all-girl swing...

Teach Your Buffalo to Play Drums
By: Audrey Vernick
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Encourages the reader, through practical advice, to support his or her buffalo's desire to play...

The Beatles Were Fab (and They Were Funny)
By: Kathleen Krull
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A group of young men from Liverpool changed the world of music and they enjoyed a good laugh —...

The Cardboard Piano
By: Lynne Rae Perkins
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Debbie is taking piano lessons and makes a cardboard piano for her friend Tina. But when Tina...

The Carnival of the Animals
By: Jack Prelutsky
Age Level: 6-9 years old
New poems, many rhyming, describe the animals introduced in Saint-Saens' orchestral music that...

The Composer Is Dead
By: Lemony Snicket
Age Level: 6-9 years old
An inspector seeks to solve a murder mystery at the symphony by questioning each of the musical...

The Deaf Musicians
By: Pete Seeger, Paul Dubois Jacobs
Age Level: 6-9 years old
An inspector seeks to solve a murder mystery at the symphony by questioning each of the musical...

The First Flute
By: David Bouchard, Jan Reibach
Age Level: 6-9 years old
When a name is given to an adult, it is often given based on the life that person has lived. The...

The Golden Thread: A Song for Pete Seeger
By: Colin Meloy
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Pete Seeger was a musician, an activist, an environmentalist and more. An overview of his life...

The Little Piano Girl
By: Ann Ingalls, Maryann Macdonald
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A child prodigy at the piano sprinkles her music with a little jazz. Includes an afterword about...

The Piano
By: William Miller
Age Level: 6-9 years old
A young girl's love for music leads her to a job in the home of an older woman who teaches her...

The Shoe Bird
By: Barbara M. Joosse
Age Level: 6-9 years old
An absurd but satisfying fantasy based on Eudora Welty's only children’s work, is presented in...

Trombone Shorty
By: Trou "Trombone Shorty" Andrews
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Troy Andrews grew up in a New Orleans family of musicians so it’s not surprising that he, too,...

Tuba Lessons
By: T.C. Bartlett
Age Level: 6-9 years old
While walking through the woods on his way to his tuba lesson, a boy becomes sidetracked by all...

Ukulele Hayley
By: Judy Cox
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Hayley has finally found her talent: playing ukelele like her great-aunt Ruby, who traveled all...

When Bob Met Woody: The Story of the Young Bob Dylan
By: Gary Gallo
Age Level: 6-9 years old
This picture-book biography follows a young Bob Zimmerman as he renames himself after his...

When Grandmama Sings
By: Margaree King Mitchell
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Belle goes with her talented grandmother on a singing tour during a time of racial segregation...

When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky
By: Lauren Stringer
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Nonfiction
Stravinsky, a composer, and a dancer named Nijnsky each worked alone until they met. Their...

When the Beat Was Born: DJ Kool Herc and the Creation of Hip Hop
By: Laban Carrick Hill
Age Level: 6-9 years old
From his early childhood in Jamaica, Clive loved all types of music. When he was 13 years old,...

Yellow Dog Blues
By: Alice Faye Duncan
Age Level: 6-9 years old
Fiction
A lyrical road trip through the Mississippi Delta, exploring the landmarks that shaped one of...

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
By: Lloyd Moss
Age Level: 6-9 years old
When this book begins, the trombone is playing all by itself. But soon a trumpet makes a duet, a...
Age Level: 9-12 years old


All Summer Long
By: Hope Larson
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
Bina’s first summer without her best friend, Austin, proves to be an emotional roller coaster....

Amina's Voice
By: Hena Khan
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
Amina loves music, but stage fright and her conservative uncle’s disapproval hamper her...

Audition & Subtraction
By: Amy Fellner Dominy
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Tatum, a 14-year-old clarinetist, competes with new student Michael for a spot in honor band,...

Better Nate Than Ever
By: Tim Federle
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
Nate Foster has big dreams. His whole life, he’s wanted to star in a Broadway show. But how is...

Blackbird Fly
By: Erin Entrada Kelly
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Bullied at school, eighth-grader Apple, a Filipino American who loves the music of the Beatles,...

Blues Journey
By: Walter Dean Myers
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Rich paintings in limited colors convey the power of a people and a piece of their history. Done...

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground
By: Rita Williams-Garcia
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Clayton Byrd adores his grandfather, loves the jazz Cool Papa plays with the other bluesmen in...

Dreambender
By: Ronald Kidd
Age Level: 9-12 years old
In a world where dreambenders manipulate dreams in order to remove emotions both negative and...

Echo
By: Pam Muñoz Ryan
Age Level: 9-12 years old
A harmonica and a bit of magic link different children from different times.

Firebird
By: Misty Copeland
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Misty Copeland, the African American Ballet Theater soloist, has an encouraging conversation...

Great American Mousical
By: Emma Walton Hamilton
Age Level: 9-12 years old

Guitar Notes
By: Mary Amato
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Two very different high school students discover a mutual appreciation for writing songs for the...

High-Tech DIY Projects with Musical Instruments
By: Maggie Murphy
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Provides information about music, instruments, and sound while offering step-by-step...

I Am Drums
By: Mike Grosso
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
When Sam’s school music program goes under, and her parents can’t afford to buy her a drum kit...

I Heart Band Series
By: Michelle Schusterman
Age Level: 9-12 years old
The books follow French horn player Holly Mead as she navigates middle school friendships and...

Jazz
By: Walter Dean Myers
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Experience the explosion of color and movement of jazz as you pulsate with its beat in a vibrant...

Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph
By: Roxanne Orgill
Age Level: 9-12 years old
In 1958, photographer Art Kane gathered up a who’s who of jazz musicians on a New York City...

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker
By: Patricia Hruby Powell
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Josephine Baker’s life and struggles of this performer and activist comes to life.

Julie Andrews' Collection of Poems, Songs, and Lullabies
By: Julie Andrews, Emma Walton Hamilton
Age Level: 9-12 years old

Learn to Speak Music
By: John Crossingham
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Learn to Speak Music helps young readers learn this universal language of music by revealing...

Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed the World
By: Robbie Robertson
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Part memoir, part tribute, and all great storytelling. Music industry veterans Robbie Robertson...

Let Your Voice Be Heard: The Life and Times of Pete Seeger
By: Anita Silvey
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Pete Seeger lived a long life sharing his music and his convictions about equality with...

Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought)
By: Kathleen Krull
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Short, fresh and fun essays present a broad array of musicians and their music - from Bach to...

Maker Projects for Kids Who Love Music
By: Rebecca Sjonger
Age Level: 9-12 years old
For kids into music, this title cant be beat! From inspiring profiles of key Maker musicians, to...

Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala-Ša, Native American Author, Musician, and Activist
By: Gina Capaldi, Q.L. Pearce
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Born in 1876 on the Yankton Sioux reservation in South Dakota, Zitkala-Ša willingly left her...

Rhythm Ride: A Road Trip Through the Motown Sound
By: Andrea Davis Pinkney
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Listen to the “groove” as readers make their way through the history of Motown, the people who...

Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!
By: Robert Levine
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Nonfiction
Describes the orchestra and includes information on composers, instruments, and the conductor....

The First Rule of Punk
By: Celia C. Pérez
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
When her “Super Mexican” mother drags her across the country, away from her father, what better...

The Flute
By: Rachna Gilmore
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Her parents swept away by a catastrophic flood, Chandra finds solace in her mother's magic flute...

The Music in George’s Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue
By: Suzanne Slade
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Illustrations in blues and grays combine with words to flow across the pages of this handsome...

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail
By: Lesley M. Blume
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Hansen is a 10-year-old piano prodigy living in Rusty Nail, Minnesota. She's long exhausted the...

The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman
By: Ben H. Winters
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
Spurred by a special project from social studies teacher, seventh grader Bethesda Fielding...

The Sweetest Sound
By: Sherri Winston
Age Level: 9-12 years old
Fiction
Ten-year-old Cadence Mariah Jolley is surrounded by music. She inherited a beautiful voice from...

The Voice That Challenged a Nation
By: Russell Freedman
Age Level: 9-12 years old
A Newbery Honor book that accounts the life and musical career of the great African American...

What Is Rock and Roll?
By: Jim O'Connor
Age Level: 9-12 years old
This entry in the popular "Who Was" series covers the background of rock and roll music that...