Skip to main content
  • Tags: sounds
Listen: How Evelyn Glennie, a deaf girl, changed percussion
Stocker, Shannon
Evelyn Glennie grew up in Scotland where her Dad played the accordion and her Mom played the organ. Evelyn played the piano and clarinet until she began to lose her hearing. But that did not stop her love of music. In secondary school, Evelyn played percussion instruments. Through the genius of Mr. Forbes, her music teacher, he had Glennie take out her hearing aids and make sounds that vibrated and resonated through her whole body. In fact, her whole body responded like one large hearing organ. She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and received the prestigious Queen's Commendation for both music and academics. Later, tthe Queen of England knighted her and the world listened as she toured to perform in forty countries and win two Grammy Awards.

A library book for bear
Becker, Bonny
Although he sees no need for more books to read, Bear agrees to accompany Mouse to the library.

Keeping the city going
Floca, Brian
During the COVID-19 pandemic, entire cities shut down and everyone stayed in their homes except for the workers that society needed the most. The people who deliver the mail, stock the grocery stores and care for the sick: they remained. Society celebrates these people because, without their sacrifice and dedication, society would not have been able to survive a global pandemic.

Action! How movies began
McCarthy, Meghan
Movies are an important part of our society today, but they have not always been what we see in theaters. From the Kinetoscope to black and white film, and from soundless productions to special effects, the movie industry has evolved over time to make what we see and enjoy today!

Fry bread: A Native American family story
Maillard, Kevin Noble
Children help a Native American grandmother make fry bread while learning about the history, social ways, food, art, and politics of America's 573 recognized Indian tribes.

Quiet in the garden
Aliki
A little boy enjoys going out into his garden. His garden has flowers, produce, and wildlife. The wildlife shows the little boy the importance of the food chain. The little boy enjoys a picnic with the wildlife, because he loves nature.

The listening walk
Showers, Paul
A young girl and her dad love to take silent walks with each other and their old dog. The girl enjoys the silence and is constantly listening to all of the sounds she hears.

The story of noodles
Compestine, Ying Chang
The Kang family decides to switch up their usual annual cooking contest recipe from dumplings to 'noodles' with the help from their three rambunctious sons.

Busy little mouse
Fernandes, Eugenie
A playful little mouse races out of the house to play on the farm. He comes across many different animals out on the farm. The animals talk in their animal sounds. At the end of a busy day of play, he returns home to go to sleep.

Night house bright house
Wellington, Monica
At night all the objects awake. They run and scram all over the house from the studio to the bedroom. They break a statue and have a surprise party. After all the bumping and jumping, they begin to get tired out, and enough is enough. It's time for bed, and they're all done.

Frankie Stein
Schaefer, Lola
Frankie is born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Stein and grows up with monster changes to his hair and skin with his parents' help. Frankie learns how to walk like a Frankenstein and learns about his family tree so he can become more scary.

Storm coming!
Baird, Audrey B.
A collection of poems describes the different aspects of a storm, including the events before, during, and after. With vivid imagery, even an ordinary storm can come alive with Baird's poetry.

Night running: How James escaped with the help of his faithful dog based on a true story
Carbone, Elisa
It's 1838 and James plans to escape from Master Graham's farm where he is a slave. He tries to leave his dog, Zeus, at the farm because he believes he willbe too muchtrouble. Zeus refuses to tay behind though and ends up save James' life and dreams of freedom.

The shaking bag
Battle-Lavert, Gwendolyn
Though Miss Annie Mae doesn't always have much food for herself or her dog Effie Lucille, she faithfully feeds the birds in the lawn. One day a stranger comes to visit. He shakes many special surprises for her out of the old seed bag to reward her for all her generosity.

Brave little monster
Baker, Ken
Little monster is unable to fall asleep, fearing little girls and boys hiding in his room. Overcoming his fears, little monster scares the girls and boys away and eventually goes to sleep peacefully.

Henrietta and the golden eggs
Johansen, Hanna
Once upon a time, 3,333 chickens lived in a small, crowded chikcen yard and everyday Henrietta, the baby chicken, finds a way out and everyone follows. Soon the manager builds a large, open chicken house and Henrietta lays her first egg.

The way to start a day
Baylor, Byrd
Morning time is a sacred time. The beginning of a new day is about to unfold. There's a lot of movement around the world. Wake up to enjoy the warmth of the sun.

Please say please!
Cuyler, Margery
When Penguin invites his friends for dinner, they all seem to have forgotten their manners. The animals need help to remember the right way to act at a friend's house.

Q is for duck
Elting, Mary // Folsom, Michael
A zoo filled with a wide variety of animals, their behaviors, and the noises that they make creates a fun-filled atmosphere for an exciting riddle using all twenty-six letters of the alphabet. This alphabet guessing game keeps children anticipating what is on the next page as they are learning they connections between animals and letters.

Grandpa's soup
Kadono, Eiko
Grandpa is lonely after Grandma dies. He wants to make meatball soup just like his wife use to make. Each day after Grandpa makes the soup, friends come and eat it with him. Grandpa finds that eating the soup with friends helps to ease his loneliness.

The baby beebbe bird
Massie, Diane Redfield
All day long, the zoo animals roar and make noise. When they lay down to go to sleep, something keeps them awake: a new baby beebee bird isn't tired and sings all night long. When morning comes, all the animals are still tired. To prove their point, the animals make noise all day, keeping the bird awake. The next night all the animals, including the baby beebee bird, are fast asleep.

Hiawatha passing
Hagen, Jeff
A young boy awakens on a cold winter night to the sound of a passenger train roaring past his grandparent's farm. What do you know about the train Hiawatha?

Red wolf country
London, Jonathan
A wolf and his mate travel through the country during the winter in search of a home where soon the female wolf will have babies.

Mama & papa have a store
Carling, Amelia Lau
Mama and Papa have a store. Day to day the routine is similar. The same people come in to buy the same things. This little girl likes these routines and she shares them with us. From what Mama is cooking to Papa counting on the abacus we spend the whole day with one little girl.

Chugga-chugga choo-choo
Lewis, Kevin
A freight train's day proves to be very busy. After a long day of traveling into tunnels and up steep mountains, even the train needs a rest.

The seals on the bus
Hort, Lenny
A group of people get onto a bus that takes them around to different places in town. At each stop a different type of animal gets on. Each animal has a distinctive sound that goes with the rhyme. Finally the people flee off the bus from the animals.

In the time of the drums
Siegelson, Kim L.
Mentu and Twi tell the story of an African family newly arrived in the Americas. Twi never gives up on returning to her native Africa. Twi tells stories of cooking, planting, music and dancing from her native land.

Whistling wings
Goering, Laura
Marcel, a young tundra swan, is tired from the first half of a winter migration. One thousand miles is a long way to fly- too long for Marcel, so he hides in the rushes to stay behind while his parents and the flock continue south. But with the lake nearly frozen over, he soon realizes that he is not cut out for life on the ice. Other animals offer advice about how to survive the winter, but their ways of living aren't right for the swan. Hungry and scared, he falls asleep- only to be awakened by a big surprise!

Trains! Steaming! Pulling! Huffing!
Hubbell, Patricia
Trains, trains, trains! Giant engines snorting, puffing, steaming, pulling, rushing, huffing! All kinds of trains, from cabooses to hoppers and commuter trains to zoo trains, run clickety-clack along the tracks.

The piano man
Chocolate, Debbie
A young girl listens to her grandfather share his deep love for music and the piano. Grandfather shares the history of silent movies, Vaudeville, Ragtime, and Broadway. He never lets his passion for music end and continues to share it with his grandaughter.

Ella sets the stage
Amico, Carmela
Ella wants so badly to be in the school talent show, but she has no talent. She decides instead to join the talent show committee and helps make the show the best it can be. During the show, something unexpected happens and Ella comes to the rescue, finding her true talent: helping others.

Baxter Barret Brown's bass fiddle
McKenzie, Tim A
Baxter Barret Brown loves to play his bass fiddle. He decides to take it with him wherever he goes and turn it into whatever he needs. However, he soon learns that when he changes the fiddle he can't play the music he loves and must change it back if he wants what really makes him happy.

Clink Clank Clunk
Aroner, Miriam
Rabbit is taking a trip into town and is kind enough to pick up nine friends along the way. Much to his dismay, Rabbit's car begins to fall apart more and more with each friend that gets in! With a little teamwork and persistence though, the ten make it safely to town where Rabbit buys a new car.

Memorial day surprise
Golding, Theresa Martin
Marco and his mother are off to see the Memorial Day parade! Today, mother is in a hurry because she has a special surprise for Marco. She is in such a hurry that they don't have time to see Marco's grandfather. Once they reach the parade, Marco sees his two best friends which he believes is the surprise. Yet, they are not the surprise his mother has in store for him. Neither is the marching band, fire engine, Statue of Liberty, or candy. Marco could never imagine the surprise in store for him at the end of the parade!

My sister's wedding
Mkatshaw, Dumazile
Nhlanhla is getting married and her cousin, Priscilla, is going to sing at the ceremony. The day before the ceremony Priscilla loses her voice. Priscilla's family comes up with many different remedies, including eating raw eggs and drinking hot garlic. Upset, Priscilla cries over her lost voice and sits down on a box of pins! With a hearty scream, her voice returns and she can sing for the wedding.

Not norman:  A goldfish story
Bennett, Kelly
When a boy gets Norman, a goldfish, for his birthday he is disappointed. He wants an energetic pet with which to run and play. He makes a plan to take Norman back to the pet store and get another pet. After show and tell at school, he decides to keep him. Norman likes his music and makes him laugh; besides any other pet just wouldnメt be the same, they would not be Norman.

Jazzy Miz Mozetta
Roberts, Brenda C.
One night Miz Mozetta decided that she felt like dancing. Her friends outside made excuses not to dance and the children across the street would not let her. Miz Mozetta sulks to her room, but soon enough her friends and the children show up in her memories ready to dance the jitterbug all night long.

Wish come true cat
Scamell, Ragnhild
The unlikely answer to a wish is a scruffy old cat that has to win the heart of a little girl. It takes a cold snowy day to make his wish come true.

Zathura:  A space adventure
VanAllsburg, Chris
Danny and Walter Budwing have a typical brotherly relationship. It isnメt until Danny finds an old game that takes the boys away to another galaxy that the brothers finally reach a new appreciation for one another.

The barking mouse
Sacre, Antonio
A Spanish speaking mouse family goes on a picnic. The parents spend the day showing each other affection while the brother and sister go play. While they are playing, the come across a cat. The cat scared everyone, except the mother mouse who saves them by speaking another language.

Going north
Harrington, Janice N
Goodbye, Alabama, hello, Lincoln, Nebraska! This family moves from the South to the North so that the papa can find a better job. During their trip up North the family endures a couple struggles, such as the children not wanting to leave their home, the baby crying, and getting restless, and lastly, almost running out of gas! They make it to Nebraska and realize they are together and need to be brave and pioneering.

Water hole waiting
Kurtz, Jane//Kurtz, Christopher
A thirsty monkey waits as the larger animals drink from the water hole on the African savanna.

Cool time song
Schaefer, Carole Lexa
After a hot day on the African savannah, the animals begin to move and make sounds in the cool air of evening.

Supersister
Cadena, Beth
Supersister is always thinking of ways she can help her pregnant mother. In the morning on the way to school, she forgets two things: to tie her mother's shoes and to give her mother a kiss. Throughout the day, she does all her chores and thinks of new ways to help her mother. At the end of the day she forgets the same two things, but when she remembers her mother says, Like I always say, you're going to be a super sister.

Bintou's braids
Diouf, Sylviane
When Bintou, a little girl living in West Africa, finally gets her wish for braids, she discovers that what she dreamed for has been hers all along.

Can you hear the sea?
Cumberbatch, Judy
Sarah's grandpa gives her a special shell and says if she listens carefully she can hear the sea, but all she hears are every day village noises.

April fool! Watch out at school!
DeGroat, Diane
It's April Fool's Day so Gilbert is excited to trick his friends. Throughout the day, his friends keep on tricking him, but he can't seem to trick anyone else. Gilbert doesn't give up though: he has one more trick in mind. The rest of the afternoon, he's extra nice to Lewis. Lewis gets so nervous about what Gilbert's trick is, the other classmates manage to trick him. At the end of the day, Lewis finds out Gilbert didn't have a trick after all. He had been tricked!

Bitter bananas
Olaleye, Isaac
Yusuf is a boy who lives in a jungle in Africa. His favorite drink is palm sap, and he sells what he doesn't drink. A family of baboons begins to steal his sap, so he tries many things to keep the baboons away.

Thank you for me!
Bauer, Marion
Join in with this storybook rhyme about exploring the body parts and what they do! From your hands, to your feet, and from your ears to your nose, learn about body actions and senses through rhyme, alliteration and a fun steady beat!

To be a drum
Coleman, Evelyn
Daddy Wes whispers to his two young children about the history of Africans forced into slavery and how the pulse of the drum has moved through them over time. Daddy Wes promises his children that as long as they can hear the heartbeat of the earth, they will be free.