Camille Saint-Saens' The Carnival of the Animals

Our committee has been known to look for poetry that is accompanied by a CD. For a different spin, this poetry has been written to accompany a work of classical music, "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens. A CD of the musical recording is included.

Here is a review from A Year of Reading blog:

Poetry + Music = Fun

Camille Saint-Saëns’s The Carnival of the Animals
new verses by Jack Prelutsky
illustrated by Mary GrandPré
includes CD of music and verses
Alfred A. Knopf, 2010

This music, long used to introduce children to classical music, does not need poems to suggest the animals each piece describes with sound.

These poems, written by the first U.S. Children's Poet Laureate, do not need musical accompaniment to help their rhythms and rhymes suggest the animals they describe -- the lumbering elephants, the flitting birds, the obnoxious donkeys, the slow and ancient tortoises.

But this music and these poems together, make the music more fun to listen to and the poems more fun to hear and say. What a great way to introduce children to the sounds of language along with the sounds of the orchestra.

http://readingyear.blogspot.com/2010/10/poetry-music-fun.html