Family Dynamics

Embrace Your Sound

Children - Picture Book
40 Pages
Reviewed on 05/02/2023
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite

Violin lives with her family in a music store. Do you know who her family members are? Well, you see, she’s part of the String Family: Viola, Cello and Double bass and, of course, Violin. There’s lots of music in the music store and Violin wants to join in to make her own music, but she doesn’t know how. She visits other musical families in the store; the Woodwind Family, the Brass Family, and the Percussion Family. And, of course, there’s the grand piano who is really part of two families: the Percussion Family and the String Family. Each family makes its own uniquely beautiful sounds. When the families join their talents to become an orchestra, Violin is given a special seat at the front, with the name ‘concert master’ on it. Violin has found her place in the orchestra and now she can make beautiful music with all the other music families. She can perform with a “crescendo of confidence.”

Courtney Woodward’s picture book story, Family Dynamics: Embrace Your Sound, is a clever way to teach young readers about the musical families of the orchestra. She introduces each family with care, as Violin wanders around the music store. Not only will young readers learn what the instruments look like and their names, but they will also learn something about the sounds they make, how those sounds are made, and their position in the orchestra. The theme may be about musical families, but this story has an underlying theme of families in general and how important it is to work together to be the best we can be in everything we do. There is also a valid point about accepting our differences and shining with the gifts that are uniquely ours. Young readers can download musical family pictures to color. Beautifully told and illustrated.