Canadian Folk Songs for the Young. Rev. ed.

Kelly L. Green is co-author of The Ethical Shopper’s Guide to Canadian
Supermarket Products and associate editor of the Canadian Book Review
Annual.

This revised edition of Barbara Cass-Beggs’s 1975 work has been
produced in a very attractive, easy-to-follow format, to which Debi
Perna’s cheerful, pastel illustrations add greatly. The collection is
divided into four parts: songs for very young children, songs for early
grades, songs for older children, and songs without words. There is a
very informative two-page introduction by Cass-Beggs, which explains how
and why she selected these 38 songs. Her mission, she says, was to
provide children “with songs which are both enjoyable and musically
significant.”

In my opinion, she succeeds beautifully. The songs are musically
various, representative of virtually every geographic region in Canada,
and fun to sing. Several of the lullabies use the pentatonic (5-note)
pattern, which is easy for young children to sing. Many of the songs are
French Canadian and have both French and English lyrics. There are a
number of Native songs, with lyrics in Inuktitut, Iroquois, and Sioux
languages. The simple treble-clef notation is easy for even the most
timid of musicians to pick out on a keyboard, so the book is accessible
to families of virtual nonmusicians. In short, this is a book almost any
Canadian child can enjoy, and in so doing will learn something valuable
about our heritage. Schools planning to use the book might want to
purchase enough copies for an entire class, so that all the children can
enjoy the illustrations and follow the notes as they sing. Highly
recommended.