Music from the Sky

by Denise Gillard, Stephen Taylor (Illustrator)

Overview

A young girl and her grandfather set out one morning to find the perfect branch for Grampa to carve. Grampa says he's going to make a flute, but the girl is doubtful. She has been to a concert in the city, and knows what a flute looks like. How can her grandfather make one out of a tree branch? But Grampa knows what he is doing and, after finding the right branch, they return home, where he whittles away until the branch is no longer a branch, but a wonderful flute.

Set in rural Nova Scotia in one of Canada's oldest black communities, Music from the Sky captures the special relationship between a girl and her grandfather.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.6
With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1
Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5
Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554981281
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	05/14/2011
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Denise Gillard is a Baptist minister. Music from the Sky is based on her recollections of summers spent in Nova Scotia with her grandparents. She lives in Toronto.

Stephen Taylor, a graduate of Ontario College of Art, has illustrated several children's books.

Editorial Reviews

The pictures by Stephen Taylor are realistic, colourful and could almost tell the entire story without any of the words

CM Magazine - Michelle Lawrence

The book’s simple text, crisp artwork, and nostalgic story work together to create an easy book for young readers.”
— Library Talk

From the Publisher

K-Gr 2-A lovely intergenerational story in which a young African-American girl and her grandfather share an early morning adventure. The two go out to a marsh, find the right piece of wood, and carry it home. There Grandpa whittles it into a flute so that his granddaughter can make music just like the music she imagined she heard one day gazing up into an azure sky filled with puffy white clouds. The realistic illustrations are rich in color and expression, and add to the gentle atmosphere of this simply told but eloquent story. A good read-aloud choice.-Eunice Weech, M. L. King Elementary School, Urbana, IL Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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