Books Are Celebrations

By Linda Goodman

When an audio tape holds my three year old granddaughter's attention for forty minutes, I know that I have stumbled onto something grand. Wandering minstrel Mary Jo Maichack's first audio cassette, Books Are Celebrations, is just that - a grand celebration of the wonder and joy that young children can find in books.

The tape begins with the title song, Books Are Celebrations, sung in Mary Jo's clear, sweet soprano. This is followed by an original poem, Learning to Read, which begins:

Long ago when I was young,
I met the letters one by one.

The poem leads the listener from delight to frustration to triumph as the narrator progresses from learning letters, to learning each letter's multiple sounds ("There's more than one way to sound a C?"), to learning to read. Parents, remembering their own experiences with phonics, will enjoy this poem as much as their children do.

Maichack's enthusiasm gives new life to "The Tailor", an old tale included in the repertoires of many storytellers. Maichack's retelling is fresh, and children will enjoy joining her as she snips, cuts, and sews in this story of a man who cannot bear to part with his beloved coat.

The song "You Can Go Anywhere" celebrates the imagination ("the picture machine") stimulated by books. A child may lunch with frogs, play with dinosaurs, or court a princess - all without leaving home - if he reads.

Maichack's diversity is best displayed in "Anansi Gets the Sky God's Stories." Here she uses a wide array of character voices as Anansi the trickster dupes his jungle neighbors into helping him get his most sought-after prize: stories. Chuckles and grins are certain to accompany the comical antics used to accomplish this goal.

My granddaughter's favorite story on this tape is "The Big Fat Worm," a circle story written by Nancy Van Laan. Worms, birds, cats, and dogs - this never ending story honors the cycle of life at every stage of the food chain.

Several traditional tunes, in which Maichack plays the fiddle accompanied by John McManus on guitar, are interspersed throughout the tape. These lively renditions will set young feet to dancing and old toes to tapping.

The tape ends with Keith McClelland's jazzy "Crazy ëBout Books," and upbeat song that warns:

Take away my money
Take away my looks
But, Baby, don't you dare to take away my books.

This is a mantra that many young children will espouse after enjoying the delightful stories and songs on this refreshing tape.