One Sweet Song

Propulsive rhymes unite neighbors in this counting picture book featuring a collaborative musical performance that expands and contracts. Across an architecturally varied city, apartment dwellers of various skin tones spend time within their homes. Hearing one note "floating in the air"--a flute played from a nearby balcony--a child seizes a musical triangle, dashes out to her own balcony, and "rings a chime,/ soft and true./ One note trills, and/ now there are two." As the people and instruments (a violin, a pot and spoon, a ghatam, and a morsing, among others) join in the count and the music-making, faces lift to "one sweet song/ that fills the space,/ one sweet song,/ a warm embrace"--before slowly counting down to quiet. Driving rhythms and clear rhymes by Rajan Gopal (American Desi) tug with a gentle beat, while energetic illustrations from Sanchez (Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away) render a sun-washed cityscape with texture and vigorous scribbles in this work about how individuals retain the warmth and support of connection. Ages 3-5. Author's agent: Wendi Gu, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. Illustrator's agent: Teresa Kietlinski, Bookmark Literary. (Jan.)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 2--From windows, balconies, and rooftops, a neighborhood joins an impromptu symphony in Gopal's warm, endearing picture book that begs to be read aloud. A young city girl at home hears a flute playing in a nearby building, inspiring her to join in with her triangle. Their two-person concert builds and builds until 10 different instruments from the surrounding blocks join in, using a variety of musical styles from around the world. A tender, smooth verse then counts readers back down from ten, as the day ends and the participants return to their homes. Sánchez's illustrations give the story an additional inviting, lived-in feel, as if someone from that neighborhood has been sketching the event as it unfolds. Preschool and kindergarten teachers will find this title to be an easy fit for math lessons, and music teachers may even use One Sweet Song with students to identify the many instruments featured. This would work particularly well for a lesson on South Indian Carnatic music, elements of which appear throughout. VERDICT A twist on the usual counting book that emphasizes community and the ways that music can bridge the distance between people.--Alexandra Quay

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

A joyful celebration of music and community. —Kirkus Reviews

Propulsive rhymes unite neighbors in this counting picture book featuring a collaborative musical performance that expands and contracts. . . . Driving rhythms and clear rhymes by Rajan Gopal (American Desi) tug with a gentle beat, while energetic illustrations from Sanchez (Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away) render a sun-washed cityscape with texture and vigorous scribbles in this work about how individuals retain the warmth and support of connection. —Publishers Weekly

Gopal, a kindergarten teacher, offers a pleasant, rhyming text that features numbers counting up to 10 and then back down to 1 as night falls. The warm, colorful artwork depicts a diverse group of urban apartment dwellers, young and old, who are clearly enjoying their shared musical experience. Reminiscent of spontaneous musical happenings during the pandemic, this picture book could inspire young children to create their own. —Booklist

Equally suitable for bedtime or a music-themed storytime program. Sánchez's spirited art has an endearing hand-sketched look, and a broad range of strokes (scribbles, loops, dots, and smudges) lend a sense of energy and vibration to each exuberantly earth-toned scene. While there are subtle parallels to the balcony singing in various cities during early COVID-19 lockdown, the story itself is deeply resonant and speaks to the power of music to enhance the resilience, creativity, and unity of global communities during an exceptionally trying time. —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The rhyming, rhythmic text counts up to ten participants and back down to one, first animating readers and then bringing them back down to a quieter, peaceful state that gives this book a dual function as a bedtime story. Colorful painted and digital illustrations show individual lines, an almost scribbly texture, and imperfectly drawn shapes, all of which make the pictures buzz with energy and movement. Even if they didn't personally experience these types of balcony performances, readers will understand the way music-making can bring people together. —The Horn Book