Everything Grows, a song by Raffi, comes to life in this book with paintings by Eugenie Fernandes. All three munchkins enjoyed listening as I read the book aloud. Max immediately noticed that the book had a refrain, and was delighted to see sheet music at the end of it- "Hey mom, I want to play it on the piano!"
Alina said:
"Okay Max. But first I want you to read the lyrics aloud and tell me what you imagine the tune to be."
Max said:
"You mean, how will Raffi make it sound?"
Alina said:
"You could go the way of guessing how Raffi will make it sound. Or you can try to see if a tune emerges for you before you hear Raffi's song. It's harder to imagine a different tune to lyrics once you've been exposed to it."
Max said:
"What do you mean?"
Alina blushed and tried to figure out what she meant:
"We-e-llll. Okay. Can you recite Mary had a little lamb, the nursery rhyme?"
Max nodded:
"Sure."
Max begins to sing "Mary Had A Little Lamb" with gusto.
Alina gets excited:
"See! You sang the song! But I asked you to recite the nursery rhyme."
Max said:
"But that's how I remember the rhyme. The music helps me memorize it."
Alina said:
"My point precisely. So I want to hear how these lyrics arrange themselves in a tune for you prior to your hearing how they are arranged by Raffi."
Satisfied, Max sang the lyrics in a sweet, almost whispering fashion. Micah brought a percussive element to the tune. I tried to pull off a folksy version, while Patrick channelled Henry Rollins in his take on the tune and delivery.
Max allows Raffi's music to soak over him while Milla follows the song along with the book.
Then we listed to Raffi's rendition and tried to see who heard it most like Raffi and whose interpretation (ahem, Patrick's) most differed from Raffi's. You can get your own taste of Raffi's music for children with these free mp3 and audio streams at the Raffi website. And, if you have a Max in the house, you might want this free sheet music for Everything Grows as well.
