They burp. They fart. They creak. They crack. Bodies make MUSIC!

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“Yolen and Van Cleave give voice to bodily noises—frombutts that “BOOM” to giggles and gasps—in a riotously silly poetry collectionperfectly tuned to a toilet humor–loving audience.”—Publishers Weekly

“Funny,fact-filled, and succinct, this title will have broad appeal beyond theelementary aged audience it is intended for. A recommended first purchase.”—SchoolLibrary Journal

And let's face it: kids love every note! In Body Music, bestselling authors Jane Yolen and Ryan G. Van Cleave bring their trademark wit to fifteen hilarious poems that celebrate the sounds of the human body, from sniffles to snaps, sneezes to wheezes, hiccups to yawns, and more! Each poem is illustrated with bright, lively artwork and is accompanied by scientific facts that answer questions like: What is a knuckle crack? Why do we sneeze? and What makes a tummy rumble? Funny and secretly educational, Body Music has it all: science, history, language arts, and farts!

From the book:

What Is Body Music?:

It can be accidental sounds, responses to pain, surprise, fear. But there are also folk traditions of many different countries that use body percussion, which is the art of using the body to create vibrations and sounds. Examples of body percussion include West Africa’s hambone, Ethiopian armpit music, and the hand clapping in Spanish Flamenco.

K-Gr 2–Short, humorous poetry explores all the different ways the human body makes “music,” from burping, snapping, and creaking, to cracking, coughing, and laughing. “Cough heads north, fart goes south. One by the bottom, the other by the mouth.” Each poem, sans one, is presented on a colorful spread, with text integrated into the picture. Additional information is called out in a sidebar on most pages: a question mark icon identifies explanations behind various body noises. A light bulb icon identifies interesting trivia on the topic, i.e., “Charles Osborne, an Iowa farmer, hiccupped for 68 years straight!” Lively art shows people of various ages, sizes, and skin tones creating and experiencing body noises in a cartoon style. The salmon-colored end pages are filled with speech bubbles containing words for the various noises. These poems work great for read-alouds and independent reading.

VERDICT Funny, fact-filled, and succinct, this title will have broad appeal beyond the elementary aged audience it is intended for. A recommended first purchase.

Rhymes and reflections on body noises, from groans and giggles to sneezes, wheezes, and snores.

“Cough heads north, / fart goes south. / One by bottom, / the other by mouth.” Though the authors will no doubt be slapping their foreheads for neglecting to mention that there’s a word for tummy growls (“borborygmus”), they otherwise definitely deserve claps on the shoulder for this effervescent set of verses on sounds we produce…awake and asleep, voluntarily or otherwise. San Vicente’s rubbery figures, mostly a light- or dark-skinned array of young folk, blast or blow in theatrical accompaniment, and prose notes in the margins expand on each knee-slapping topic with explanations of biological causes (“sniffles and snuffles” are symptoms of a head cold) and chortle-worthy sidelight facts (“20% of people regularly crack their knuckles. Are you a frequent snap, crackle, and pop-er?”). Gagging, humming, and a few other sounds don’t make the cut, while yawning gets in without quite fitting the sonic premise. Still, the notion that bodies can become whole percussive orchestras for a rhythmic “dance party” gets airings fore and aft—offering readers an invitation to crack their knuckles and clap out musical explorations of their own.

The crowd-pleasing premise makes this a snap for reading solo or to virtually any audience.(Picture book/poetry. 6-8)

Yolen and Van Cleave give voice to bodily noises—from butts that “BOOM” to giggles and gasps—in a riotously silly poetry collection perfectly tuned to a toilet humor–loving audience. Describing incidental body noises such as “bumbling,/ crumbling, rumbling, stumbling” stomachs, the authors capitalize on explosive consonants and rhythms to embed a snappy musicality in the text. They strike a balance between education and absurdity, pairing the poems with scientific facts and related trivia on topics including music made with bodies (“West Africa’s hambone, Ethiopian armpit music”), wheezing snakes, and a late 19th-century Parisian “fartiste.” With bold lines and dramatic color blocking, San Vicente’s artwork features disproportionate, angular figures of various skin tones with exaggerated facial expressions and cartoonish physicality, amplifying the raucous energy of this over-the-top collection. Ages 4–8.