I love a great non-fiction picture book, biographies in particular. I found Ballet for Marth: Making Appalachian Spring at the library and had to pick it up. One of Levi's favorite songs is Simple Gifts, and the boys have all loved the Appalachian Spring/Simple Gifts performance on Blast! (a fabulous DVD also available through Netflix) which is the second video below.Ballet for Martha is a beautifully illustrated story about the collaboration between Martha Graham the dancer, Aaron Copland the composer, and Isamu Noguchi the artist. Together they created the ballet Appalachian Spring. The writing is strong and simple, echoing the themes of the ballet, with additional biographical information and a detailed list of notes and sources at the end.
I was able to find a video of the original ballet (1940s) for the boys to watch. (Oh, for the love of YouTube.)
As usual, your recommendations are my favourite. Thank you so much for sharing your finds! xo
ReplyDeletePS I'm dying over here with my 7.5 year old needed new book recommendations - I've maxed out all my standbys/resources. Are you doing another list this year? (Because you have nothing else to do obv....) : )
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