Dan Zanes' House Party!

The book's description says it all, but Dan Zanes' book is much more than music. I first fell in love with Zanes and his approach about fifteen years ago. This book, illustrated by his brother-in-law, combines music, history, and a lot of Zanes into a music book that will not only entertain, but educate at the same time. Young students learning about music in school will find his book similar to their classes. Teachers are now teaching stories behind the song in terms of history, cultural events, and social reasons that helped create the song. 

There are several things that make this book stand out among other music books. Zanes includes not only the piano, but guitar chords, and an open invitation to create their own musical instruments. Music comes from within, and it doesn't always rely on playing the right note or sounding like others. In each written section that places the music in its time period and social history, Zanes also includes recommendations on books and other music to further explore the period. Creating connections between artists and mediums helps encourage the noncompetitive spirit that is so needed in the arts. 

This is a fantastic book for anyone. Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group - Voyager Press for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy.

This is one party that got my vote! It's a fun and educational look at folk songs from a wealth and variety of origins, from the 'A' landmasses: Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia, and they even let in the 'E' landmass: Europe, along with some island nations, so that pretty much covers everywhere. Curiously, Antarctica didn't get a shout. I don't know why!

There is a brief, but interesting introduction by the author, followed by the song discussed, and accompanied with music notation by Claudia Eliaza, and cute illustrations by Donald Saaf. The list contains songs you have undoubtedly heard of, some of which have become popular hits in the west, along with many you probably haven't heard of, some of which have been hits in the past or in non-English languages.

The collection is extensive and is backed by an index, but since this is evidently designed as a print book, that index isn't tappable, to take you to the song listed. Neither is the contents list, but the search function in my ebook reader works well! The book also has chord diagrams. The songs are divided into interestingly-named categories:
Songs of Wonder & Waves
Songs of Dust and Sunshine
Songs Heard From Open Windows
Songs of Gusto and Celebration
Songs of Love and Community
Songs of Childhood and Morning Dreams
Songs of Mystery and Miles
This was a fun read and I am sure you can find many of these songs on You Tube or some other online venue to get a feel for how they sound and for the tempo and rhythm, although there are no links in the book. Such links would have been useful. I was able to find pretty much every one I looked for although I only looked for a random sample of them.

One other thing I thought would have been useful was translations. Some of the songs are not in English and no translation of the words is given. While they no doubt sound great in the foreign tongue (a couple that i listened to did, particularly Pigogo, I felt it would have been nice to know what those tongues are saying!

That aside, I think this is a fun and instructional book, and a worthy read for anyone interested in the history and sound of folk songs and I commend it.

Dan Zanes’ House Party! Is a songbook filled with meaningful stories and songs. Dan Zanes is a favorite of children everywhere. He engages the kids and works his magic with his songs and storytelling. This book is a wonderful collection of his songs and stories and is sure to be a hit.

This is an amazing collection of folk-songs, collected by Dan Zane.

Each one has a little explanation, the back story of either how he came to know the song, or what history he has about the song, and sometimes who was famous for singing the song.

There are songs I have sung my whole life, and never thought about, and other songs that are quite new to me. What is interseting is that Dan gave a lot of thought about what songs to include and exclude. If he found out a song was originally written for Mistral Shows, he would leave them out. If he found that the song had racial slurs, even slurs that are only slurs in one country, he would leave it out.

The book is organized in groups, such as work songs, and cowboy songs, and sea shanties, and front porch songs. The book appears to be intended to teach with, which is good, because we all need to keep learning folk songs, or they will die out.

Recommended for schools and libraries,

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Beautifully executed, this book is perfect for educators (including parents!) because it includes background information and suggestions of further reading.

This is a cute and fun book. I love the songs and the drawings are cute too. This will be a nice addition to a kids home library or school room music book. I like how it is engaging for kids and will help with teaching them reading music as well. This will be fun for family night with young children.