The Carnival of the Animals

A great way to introduce children to classical music.

America’s first Children's Poet Laureate has written all-new verses to accompany the composer Camille Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals, and the illustrator of the Harry Potter books has turned these rollicking rhymes into a picture-book fun fest. Included is a CD of the music and of Jack Prelutsky reading the verses. A note to parents and teachers by Judith Bachleitner, head of the music department at the prestigious Rudolf Steiner School in New York City, suggests ways preschoolers can act out the music—tromp like an elephant, hop like a kangaroo, glide like a swan—or, for older children, be creatively inspired by this joyful work.Jack Prelutsky, America’s first Children’s Poet Laureate, is the king of funny verse. Two of his recent books are The Swamps of Sleethe: Poems from Beyond the Solar System and Good Sports: Rhymes about Running, Jumping, Throwing, and More.

Mary GrandPré is best known as the illustrator of the Harry Potter books. She has also illustrated The Blue Shoe by Roderick Townley and the picture book Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat by Jennifer Armstrong.