My girls are big book lovers and while my newly minted 6-year-old is able to read some books to herself it is always great when I can find books that will entertain both girls with or without my help. You know, for those times I can’t sit around all day reading books because important things, like showering, just need to happen.
Anyway, I know I have shared The Secret Mountain before, but their selection of wonderfully illustrated storybooks with accompanying music CDs continues to grow and their two newest releases are worth sharing.
A Gift for Sophie :: story and songs written by Gilles Vigneault,beautifully illustrated by Stephane Jorisch. The accompanying music CD starts with an almost 12 minute narration of the story by actor David Francis. The songs on the CD have a decidedly French feel to them which is not surprising in the least when you realize that A Gift for Sophie was translated from Vigneault’s award-winning French storybook, Un cadeau pour Sophie.
This is a wonderful book about young Sophie, her best friend Emilio, and the lesson they learn from Sophie’s uncle Old Man Tom. As author Vigneault explains it, Old Man Tom shows the children “that they have to believe in themselves, in their ability to solve problems they encounter.” A Gift for Sophie is a lovely storybook-music CD with a timeless story, well worth a read-listen in my opinion.
Songs from a Journey with a Parrot :: this collection of songs and lullabies from Brazil and Portugal was collected by Magdeleine Lerasle, musical arrangements are by Paul Mindy. The beautiful illustrations by Aurelia Fronty give a visual translation for the songs, but don’t worry, there are also actual translations from the original Portuguese as well as the original song lyrics included in the book.
While my 3-year-old only cares about the fun songs that she can sing along to and dance with, her 6-year-old sister and I enjoyed reading the paragraph that accompanied each song’s lyrics and translation. From these we learned the origins and history for each song as well as snippets of Brazilian and Portuguese culture. A great (and fun) learning tool for my future world travelers!
A Gift for Sophie :: $16.95 list price, currently available for $13.21 on Amazon.com
Songs from a Journey with a Parrot :: $16.95 list price, currently available for $13.21 on Amazon.com
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