THE MILK CRATE CLUB series
The Milk Crate Club The Milk Crate Club was an odd sort of club with a name that gave nothing away. Its members, six very different kids, had only one thing in common. But the one thing was so huge, it ensured they would become the very best of friends. What was it? Well, music, of course! These kids really loved music, and they loved getting together each week to share their creations, discoveries, joys, lesson, and challenges with each other. If you are a kid who loves music, too, then come along and join in the wonder - the Milk Crate Club is waiting for you!
HANNABELLE'S BUTTERFLIES
Hannabelle is a young girl with a terrific musical talent, and an equally terrific fear of sharing it in public. Is it possible that she is not the only one with these unwelcome butterflies? Can she find a way to perform in spite of the nerves, and maybe even make those butterflies dance?
Hannabelle's Butterflies is a picture book for children ages 4-9. Look for it on Amazon and in book and music stores globally.
Praise for Hannabelle's Butterflies:
I had ordered your book from Amazon Prime and it arrived yesterday. I love it!! Great story, fun and diverse characters, addresses anxiety empathetically and just enough so kids could relate but without making it a big enough deal to create anxiety in them, and provides so many strategies to overcome it!! Plus, it's lovely... I'm a fan, and can't wait for the next two!
Dr. Wendy Sims, Curators' Distinguished Teaching Professor, Music Education, University of Missouri
THE MILK CRATE CLUB
What happens when you invite five kids who have never met to make music at your house? Hannabelle was about to find out. When awkward silence fills the air, her plan seems doomed. Until Waverly spots the paint brushes… and something magical happens.
The Milk Crate Club is a picture book for children ages 4-8. Available now on Amazon!
CHAPTER BOOKS
KATHERINE LOST
In the aftermath of her disastrous audition for a prestigious performing arts school, Katherine is lost. As she navigates school, friends, family, and teachers, deftly avoiding revisiting the fateful event, she is pulled into unexpected challenges. Can these opportunities reveal her true self?
Katherine Lost is a middle grades chapter book. Find it on Amazon and in book and music stores globally!
Praise for Katherine Lost:
Music educator, pianist and mother Charlene Ryan masterfully weaves a heartfelt tale of young Katherine Keyes as she experiences the trials and tribulations of pursuing her musical passion in the captivating book, Katherine Lost. Throughout twenty-plus chapters of this engaging story, Katherine explores and processes emotions commonly experienced (though often unspoken) by young musicians as they learn, engage with and perform music. By sharing the inner thoughts of sixth-grade pianist Katherine, the book touches upon themes of doubt, longing, fear, failure, and dealing with the memory slips, performance anxiety and grief often associated with perfectionism. Fortunately, Katherine experiences these emotions alongside a backdrop of supportive family, music teachers and friends which allows her to pursue new creative opportunities during a significant transition period in her young life. Indeed, throughout her journey, Katherine learns to appreciate the process of making music with others, including how to listen, learn, collaborate and share music through performance. The story highlights the power of music to bring together diverse groups of people and the value of engaging in different genres of music and creative play. Katherine Lost will resonate with budding, young, creative artists. It is, also, a highly recommended read for precollege music teachers as the carefully crafted story provides insight into a young person’s joy, fears and unspoken anxieties about music, and it sheds light on meaningful ways in which adolescents might engage in music making beyond the private lesson.
Dr. Pamela Pike, Herndon Spillman Professor of Piano Pedagogy, Louisiana State University
Editor-in-Chief/Chief Content Director, Piano Magazine: Clavier Companion
Author, Dynamic Group-Piano Teaching
Katherine Lost is a wonderful, descriptive narrative that will be so accessible and appealing to young musicians. Even non-musicians in the middle-school age category will delight in reading how the protagonist Katherine overcame her struggles. The relatable characters that Charlene Ryan so carefully crafted help bring to life the typical feelings and challenges that are associated with performing. An enjoyable story like this one will help youngsters to understand they are not alone - that many others experience the same anxieties they face. Through the experiences of the lead character, Katherine, readers will also be gently introduced to strategies they can use to help manage performance anxiety. They will also be reminded of the support they can receive from family, friends and teachers. This book can serve as a fantastic resource for music students and their instructors.
Dr. Diana Dumlavwalla, Assistant Professor of Piano Pedagogy, Florida State University
President-Elect, Florida State Music Teachers Association
I’ve just finished reading Charlene Ryan’s Katherine Lost and found it fascinating. So many of my own insights and “ah-has” remembered from my own middle school years were reincarnated by her story, cascading in torrents from the pages to prompting my early memories. The empty angst, loneliness and bewilderment Katherine feels in a world she is only now discovering rings hauntingly true. As Katherine tries to analyze her reactions to her family, teachers, and friends she begins to find insights into her own ideas and reactions to various kinds of music. For the first time she is experiencing new genres of music other than her years of classical piano study, that also begin to find their way into her life. While Katherine Lost is likely a prequel to a coming-of-age story, Ryan compresses many private feelings into her story that all too often sneak up and surprise pre-teens. Many of those emotions are negative and frightening. Katherine’s music experiences begin to save her and draw her away from this unwanted and unwelcome anxiety. Mine were visceral experiences when my own memories were revived and remembered as I read. Other characters in this story craftily introduce insights in other performing and visual arts to the reader.
Curl up with this captivating story and let Katherine steer you through a particularly interesting and introspective time in her young, talented life. If you’re older, the story will resurrect your own experiences, now, with better awareness. If you’re a teen or pre-teen, you’ll begin to see that what you’re experiencing is being experienced by others just like you. And that should be a comforting feeling.
Michael J. Wagner, Ph.D.
Professor and Director of Music Education (retired) 1973 – 2004
School of Music
Fellow of the Honors College
Florida International University
Miami, Florida
Professor and Director of Music Education (retired) 1973 – 2004
School of Music
Fellow of the Honors College
Florida International University
Miami, Florida
THE SOUND BOOKS series
The Sound Books series brings together visual and aural imagery in an exploration of vocal and instrumental skill building and conceptual understanding. The vibrant and original artwork is created and arranged to clearly depict sound ideas with few or no words required. This unique approach encourages students to bring abstract musical concepts together with concrete aesthetic images and to explore the creative potentials they offer.
NEW!
PLAYING WITH SOUND:
A Sound Books Anthology
The Sound Books series is a picture book collection designed to visually represent musical concepts for young and novice learners. Its original artwork is created and arranged to clearly depict sound ideas with few or no words required. The unique approach encourages students to bring together visual and aural imagery and creativity in an exploration of vocal and instrumental skill building and conceptual musical understanding. Designed for interactive use between parents and children, teachers and students, each book focuses on a particular skill and/or concept area and provides strategies for effective use.
Playing with Sound: A Sound Books Anthology is designed for use in teacher-education settings, as part of a music or integrated arts education course. It works equally well as a resource for both novice and experienced educators who are interested in creative approaches to sound and music exploration with their students. The anthology is a compilation of the first six Sound Books: Up and Down Sounds, Big and Small Sounds, Sections of Sound, Layers of Sound, Grouping Sound, and Moving Sound. In a classroom or group-learning setting, this anthology would best serve as a teacher guide, alongside the individual concept-specific books, which are recommended for use with students.
MOVING SOUND
Musical sounds move in time! Follow the artwork with your voice, body, instruments, and sounds created from objects around you to see and feel how rhythm, beat, and meter work together in keeping the music moving.
Moving Sound is the sixth publication in the series and focuses on the relationships between beat, rhythm, and meter in music. Through simple and engaging images, rhythmic ideas are presented visually on top of the beats and meter systems within which they work, and allow for a wide range of opportunities to explore and internalize these intertwined musical concepts.
Designed as an interactive book for use between teachers and students, parents and children, and among classmates, Moving Sound is intended for all ages who are curious about the musical concepts - beat, rhythm, and meter - that keep the music moving. Find it on Amazon and at book and music stores globally.
GROUPING SOUND
Musical sounds are grouped in patterns! Follow the artwork with your voice, body, instruments, and sounds created from objects around you to develop your expertise with musical meter.
Grouping Sound is the fifth publication in the series and focuses on musical meter—the ways in which we organize strong and weak beats within musical compositions. Through straightforward and compelling visual images that depict bigger and smaller sounds in organized collections, both common and less common musical meters are introduced. Learners are encouraged to use their voices, instruments, bodies, and found sounds to create and combine the beat patterns to develop a wide range of metrical possibilities and expertise.
Designed as an interactive book for use between teachers and students, parents and children, and among classmates, Grouping Sound is intended for all ages who are curious about musical meter and want to get a feel for common, lesson common, and changing meters. Find it on Amazon and at book and music stores globally.
LAYERS OF SOUND
Musical sounds can grow in layers! Follow the artwork with your voice, body, instruments, and sounds created from objects around you, as you create your own layers of musical sound.
Layers of Sound is the fourth publication in the series and focuses on musical texture - the layers of sound that combine to make musical compositions. Through a range of images, which begin as single lines and develop into more complex layers that begin, end, and move together or independently, learners are encouraged to explore connections between the images and create musical lines to work with them.
Designed as an interactive book for use between teachers and students, parents and children, Up and Down Sounds is intended for early years and elementary age children. Find it on Amazon and at book and music stores globally.
UP AND DOWN SOUNDS
Musical sounds go up and down. Follow the artwork with your voice, body, instruments, and found sounds as they lead you to high sounds, low sounds, and all the sounds in between!
The first book in The Sound Books series, Up and Down Sounds focuses on vocal exploration of high and low sounds, and all sounds in between. Through a range of images, which begin as seemingly random patterns and develop into more sophisticated images that resemble traditional music notation, learners are encouraged to explore their vocal capacities as they sing what they see.
Designed as an interactive book for use between teachers and students, parents and children, Up and Down Sounds is intended for early years and elementary age children. Find it on Amazon and at book and music stores globally.
SECTIONS OF SOUND
Musical sounds are organized! Distinct components alternate, repeat, and vary in creative combinations. Sections of Sound brings those components to life in bright colors and beautiful designs. Can you find the form that matches the music you're listening to? Can you create new music to match our favorite patterns? The possibilities are endless!
Sections of Sound focuses on the organization of sounds in musical compositions. Elementary children and older students will find the content clear and effective in its representation of musical form in existing works and provide a creative structure within which to create their own music.
Designed as an interactive book for use between teachers and students, parents and children, Sections of Sound is intended for use from the early years through middle school. Find it on Amazon and at book and music stores globally.
BIG AND SMALL SOUNDS
Musical sounds can be BIG and small! What kinds of sounds can you see in these images? Use your voice, body, instruments, and sounds created from objects around you, to make the BIG and small sounds you imagine!
Big and small sounds focuses on big (loud) and small (quiet) sounds. Pairs of unique oil paintings in vibrant colors and shapes are laid out in each 2-page spread to visually represent musical dynamics. Children are encouraged to explore sound possibilities for each with their voices, instruments, and other sound-makers in their environment.
Designed as an interactive book for use between teachers and students, parents and children, Big and Small Sounds is intended for early years and elementary age children. Find it on Amazon and at book and music stores globally.
BOOKS FOR TEACHERS
BUILDING STRONG MUSIC PROGRAMS
While program building is an essential part of every music teacher's job, new teachers are rarely prepared for it. Building Strong Music Programs provides strategies and tools for developing a vibrant music program that survives the test of time. Building Strong Music Programs is a handbook for music teachers, published and distributed by Rowman & Littlefield Education.
Praise for Building Strong Music Programs:
Building Strong Music Programs comforts and assures the emerging teacher that a smooth transition into the profession is possible. This handbook covers a wide variety of practical topics, which are either omitted or get short shrift in the typical music education college curriculum... Providing an intellectual, logistical, and emotional security net for young teachers, its real world previews will help new teachers weather storms and avoid mistakes which can cause loss of enthusiasm, embarrassment, and premature burn out. A practical, easily accessible, organized, and valuable aid, it's full of sound advice for emerging music teachers who will enter their first jobs mentally and emotionally prepared for the steep learning curve of the first year. This handbook can provide a sense of security for music teachers entering their first jobs. Even if this book is used as a college text, after graduation it will continue to be a source of comfort and guidance, and will serve as a lifeline for new teachers."
Dr. Sandra Nicolucci, Associate Professor of Music, Boston University
Charlene Ryan has captured the true essence of what it takes to create and/or maintain a vibrant music program in our schools. So many new teachers lack the practical skills to survive this demanding profession and end up dropping out. Ryan succinctly advises how to create, maintain, promote, and support a strong, vibrant program. I highly recommend this book for every music teacher's professional library. Its wealth of information in an easy-to-read format has enough breadth of content even for seasoned professionals. Never underestimate the value of creating a well-constructed and logical management plan for your music program—this is what will keep you vibrant and your students actively engaged in the joy of learning throughout your career.
Allan F. Anderson, past-president of the Canadian Music Educators' Association (CMEA)