Lady Treble & the Seven Notes. Eliyana Biklou. Vancouver, BC: Simply Read Books, 2010. 32 pp., hardcover, $18.95. ISBN 978-1-897476-21-5. Subject Headings: Musical notation-Juvenile literature. Music theory-Juvenile literature. Preschool-grade 1 / Ages 3-6. Review by Michelle Lawrence. *** /4

Music teachers everywhere will agree that introducing the music staff, notes, and the location on a keyboard can be a daunting task for younger students. Lady Treble & the Seven Notes is a fun, interactive way for young children to comprehend these introductory musical concepts. Lady Treble manages an apartment building where the hard working notes of a musical scale live.

"An apple a day keeps the sniffles away," says Donna the Doc, who loves to rock.
When work is done she sings for fun We all agree her note is “D”.

     Each note has a feature page with corresponding illustrations. There is also a musical staff in the top right hand corner of every page and a keyboard at the bottom highlighting the current note.

     At the beginning of the book, there are reusable stickers for children to place on the keyboard, making the book interactive along the way.

     After the seven notes of the musical scale are introduced, they all try to go home except everyone has forgotten their keys. Lady Treble finds her keys and saves the day so they can all sing together and create a major scale.

     Throughout the story, the author asks the readers to hum a specific note as they place the sticker on the page, thus making this book more appropriate for music teachers and/or parents who have access to a piano. At the end of the book, there are also four popular songs where children can practice reading music, or finding specific characters from the story.

    Lady Treble & the Seven Notes is recommended for music teachers to use as part of their library for introducing musical concepts to beginners.

Recommended.

Michelle Lawrence, music therapist and educator, Winnpeg, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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