Forest Full of Music

Suzan Overmeer is a Dutch music teacher and founder of the Jazz4kids foundation, which aims to introduce children to jazz music. She also performs with the Jazz4kids band in concerts at schools and theaters throughout the Netherlands. When not teaching kids about jazz, Suzan teaches college students as the head of Music Education at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2015 she published her first children’s book, I’m Pink, a poetry book for young children. Suzan lives with her husband and two children in a small village near The Hague.After receiving a teaching degree at Minerva Art Academy in Groningen, in the north of the Netherlands, Myriam Berenschot spent time teaching art and drawing to children. Now she’s so busy creating illustrations for children’s books and educational materials, that she doesn’t have time to teach. In her drawings and photography she likes to take a closer look at everyday things. Myriam still lives in Groningen with her husband and two daughters.

"A young rabbit longs to sing. Toby, a brown puffball with ears sticking straight up to a triangular point,hears the blackbirds singing every night and wishes that he could join them.But his mother admonishes him: “Silly boy,” she tells him. “Rabbits can’tsing.” Still, Toby is determined, and his friend Tim, a bushy-tailed squirrel,encourages him to follow his dream. Unfortunately, when Toby opens his mouth, ahorrible screeching sound comes out instead of a beautiful melody. Embarrassed,Toby runs into the woods. He cries and stomps his feet in anger. But, in amoment of transformation, those staccato noises turn out to be music of theirown. Ambient nature sounds—the tap of a woodpecker’s beak, a deer banging hisantlers against a tree—combine to create a grand woodland concerto. Thrummingwith onomatopoeias, the sounds swirl between hues of greens and yellows thatbrighten the forest setting. Originally published in Dutch, this tale is a bitwordy, but love and respect for music—and how it can be expressed in unexpectedways—shine through. Appended “Rabbit Tips for Making Music” encourage readersto stomp, tap, clap, and make other sounds to fill the room. Reframes the idea of what music might be." - Kirkus Reviews