Peter Tchaikovsky and the Nutcracker Ballet

Originally written over fifty years ago, these were among the first biographies about composers written for children. The books read wonderfully, telling about the life of the composer from childhood through his adult years. Rich in detail and description, the large text is interesting and appealing. Black and white drawings accompany the story. Besides the terrific story and pictures, each book also holds many pages of actual sheet music so students can learn and play the music of that composer. Study guides are also available, and these slim books are extremely worthwhile. For each chapter of the biography, the study guide provides comprehension questions; points out desirable character qualities; and offers "tidbits of interest," more information about interesting points in the story. These tidbits often cover 2-4 pages, and they greatly enhance the text as they delve into more detail either about an event in the composer's life, an object mentioned in the text, or a widespread event which affected the composer's life. Companion CDs are also available. These enhanced CDs include MP3 audio files as well as printable sheet music of all of the music found in the books, and coloring pages for each chapter. Newly added are the Lapbooking CDs and Audio Books. Lapbooking CDs are designed to accompany the study guide and book (not a stand-alone product), and contain directions for a variety of activities, printable masters and photographs of finished projects. Activities range from a focus on music and musical instruments to a historical event that occurred during the studied musician's time period. Windows and Mac compatible, requires Adobe Acrobat Reader (download for free at www.get.adobe.com/reader/.) Please note the Lapbook CDs are copyrighted for home use only. Audio Books contain the text of the composer biography books along with audio selections of music referenced in the book. The books are approx. 120 pgs, and the study guides are approx. 30 pgs. ~ Melissa/Deanne