It's My Book!

January is National Book Month, so we wanted to give you a cool song to go along with your reading activities. "It's My Book!" extols the joy of reading and the portability of books (as long as it isn't one of those hefty 20 pounders sitting on your coffee table).

The melody is fairly easy to learn and has a very syncopated feel until the coda where it has a straight eighth note pattern, and again at measure 37 where it becomes straight quarter notes. As always, the divisi at the end is purely optional. Make sure to have your singers warm up before this piece, as the very first note is a high C (in the staff).

As for movement, it might be nice to have students hold their own books, again nothing too big or heavy. At the beginning of the piece and during the instrumental sections at measures 16 and 34, have students flip the pages of their books on the beat, either all at once or one at a time down the line. You could also divide them into groups of four, and all the "ones" turn on beat 1, all the "twos" turn on beat 2, etc. If quarter notes are too fast for them to flip pages, flip them every two beats. Here are some additional movement ideas.

• "It's my book" - hold the book up in the air
• "Where I go" - point to yourself
• "You will find me reading it" and "Anytime I get a chance, I'll read it" - hold book in front of you, opened up
• "'Til the cows come home" - book in front of face, turn left to right
• "Don't you know?" - book in one hand, hands up and out with palms up as if making a statement; land this on the word "know"
• At the coda, hold the book in front of face, quickly lowering the book only to sing lines, then quickly putting book back in front of face
• At the last measure of the coda, turn pages to the beat again
• Final "Where I go it goes!" - book in one hand, hands up high in a "Y" shape for the final note