The illustrations won a Caldecott Honor and, while I appreciated them, I'm not sure I was particularly a fan (much as I loved Priceman's How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World) though the cats and dogs on each page certainly add some humor and fun and I also appreciated the multi-cultural orchestra members. Each instrument has its own little poem but the illustrations help keep everything unified and I really enjoyed the end when the pieces all come together to create an encore-worthy performance. I would actually be somewhat afraid of misreading or accidentally skipping parts of the narrative, if I were reading this otherwise excellent offering aloud to children.Īn enjoyable poetic introduction to musical instruments, this book also proves a charming counting book as we add from one to ten musicians (and their instruments) to make a chamber orchestra. The only minor problem I, personally, have tended to encounter with Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin! is the font size and the fact that the text is generally rather curved, which I find somewhat distracting whilst reading. Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin! thus presents an informative and entertaining, captivating way to introduce younger children not only to ten essential musical instruments, but it also, of course, works as a simple counting book, portraying the numbers one to ten (and solo to a chamber group of ten musicians). Featuring an engaging, poetic text (Lloyd Moss has really captured the essence of each of the presented instruments with his delightful, fun onomatopoeic verses) and combined with Marjorie Priceman's bright and lively, descriptive and to me dancing illustrations, I can certainly understand why and how Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin was chosen as a Caldecott Honor book. This fun and delightfully engaging picture book about musical instruments and the various sounds they make is truly a small but mighty gem. The niece thought the artwork was pretty and she was interested in what you call larger groups like 9 is nonet. He recognized some of the instruments and he did get excited he knew what the instruments were.

The nephew recently went to see the Baltimore Orchestra play a concert for kids with his school and he really enjoyed that day. It is full of movement and swirls and the flute player was pretty cool too. What I like about this book most is that it uses numbers as a way to teach groups like an octet or a duo or a solo. I loved being the top range of the orchestra. I was a piccolo player and very good at it too because I could play it in tune. I especially miss playing in the Nutcracker every Christmas.

The rhyme made a rhythm that fit with all the instruments we see in the orchestra.

I had fun with this rhyming counting beginning book.

Zin zin zin a violin by lloyd moss