Music and the alphabet have always gone together. Don't kids learn their letters by singing the ABCs? But you've never seen--or heard--a musical alphabet like this one. Beloved tunes. Unusual instruments. Legendary virtuosos. From anthems to zydeco, the language of music and the music of language harmonize in one superb symphony. It's a funky fusion for songsters of all ages! Includes endnotes.

George Gershwin heard music all the time--at home, at school, even on New York City's busy streets. Classical, ragtime, blues, and jazz--George's head was filled with a whole lot of razzmatazz! With rhythmic swirls of words and pictures, author Suzanne Slade and illustrator Stacy Innerst beautifully reveal just how brilliantly Gershwin combined various kinds of music to create his masterpiece, Rhapsody in Blue, a surprising and whirlwind composition of notes, sounds, and one long wail of a clarinet. Includes author's note, timeline, and bibliography.

Wild West chaos and creative problem solving are the force behind a well-loved American institution. What's a California miner to do when gold dust sifts right out of his holey pockets? With such a raggedy wardrobe, he may as well be mining in the vanilla (that is, his birthday suit) Good thing Levi Strauss is out west, ready with his needle and a head full of bright ideas. With some quick thinking, quicker stitching, and handy arithmetic, Levi keeps all the gold rushers clothed--and becomes a modern American hero. A Wild West tall tale, "Levi Strauss Gets a Bright Idea "celebrates creativity, innovation, and the ubiquitous item that fills the closets of grateful jeans wearers worldwide.

A biography of the entrepreneurial, activist duo behind Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, and their rocky road to successChunky Monkey. Cherry Garcia. Truffle Kerfuffle.Legendary ice cream makers Ben & Jerry are behind some of the wackiest, tastiest flavors we know and love. It all began when two groovy guys, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, met when they were twelve years old. Ben liked art, Jerry liked science, and they both loved food . . . especially ice cream!They started a business together, and with no idea how to actually make ice cream, they made it happen with teamwork, determination, and an appetite for fun and experimentation. When the doors of Ben & Jerry's Homemade ice cream shop finally opened, crowds flocked. But the pair would still have a rocky road ahead-and ambitious, activist goals to fulfill.Chock-full of facts and humor, this entertaining biography about two hardworking partners living their Americone Dream gives readers plenty to chew on. Through their inventiveness, passion, and activism, Ben & Jerry dreamed of making the world a better, more delicious place-one scoop at a time.

Recipient of a Sydney Taylor Book Award for Younger Readers An ALA Notable Book A Bank Street Best Book of the Year "Text and illustration meld beautifully." --The New York Times "Stunning." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Inspired...[a] journalistic, propulsive narrative." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "The story comes alive through the bold acrylic and gouache art." --Booklist (starred review) From New York Times Best Illustrated Book artist Stacy Innerst and author Sue Macy comes a story of one man's heroic effort to save the world's Yiddish books in their Sydney Taylor Book Award-winning masterpiece. Over the last forty years, Aaron Lansky has jumped into dumpsters, rummaged around musty basements, and crawled through cramped attics. He did all of this in pursuit of a particular kind of treasure, and he's found plenty. Lansky's treasure was any book written Yiddish, the language of generations of European Jews. When he started looking for Yiddish books, experts estimated there might be about 70,000 still in existence. Since then, the MacArthur Genius Grant recipient has collected close to 1.5 million books, and he's finding more every day. Told in a folkloric voice reminiscent of Patricia Polacco, this story celebrates the power of an individual to preserve history and culture, while exploring timely themes of identity and immigration.