Music Careers for Kids: Composers

Description

Someone wrote that.

The battle music. The theme song. The jingle stuck in your head since 2016. Every one came from a real person with a real job—and that job has a name.

A composer is a music builder. They stack sounds until a tune takes shape. They’re doing it right now, for the movies, games, and songs your students already love.

This nonfiction picture book pulls composing out of the history unit and drops it into kids’ actual lives: creepy strings when the monster shows up, slow sad piano at the airport goodbye, every twist and triumph in a video game from level one to the final boss, and the jingle they can’t stop humming. Bold sound words and playful illustrations keep it moving fast enough for wiggly learners.

Perfect for:

• Elementary music teachers running composer studies or career units
• Parents of kids obsessed with music, movies, or video games
• Music In Our Schools Month, Black History Month, and Women’s History Month displays
• Career day, STEAM and arts career conversations, and library read-alouds
• Kids ages 4–8 (PreK–3)

🎵 What kids will learn:

• What a composer is and what the job really looks like
• Where composers work: film and TV scores, video game music, pop songwriting, orchestras, musicals, and commercial jingles
• The tools of the trade: paper, pencils, instruments, headphones, computers, and imagination
• That the music they already love came from a real person with a real job

📘 Teacher bonus: Ten real composers are hiding in the illustrations. Flip to the back matter to meet them: Florence Price, Clara Schumann, Koji Kondo, Freddie Mercury, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Max Martin, Shellback, SOPHIE, Isang Yun, and Julius Eastman. Each gets a short, true, kid-friendly bio—perfect for bell ringers, composer-of-the-week features, or a first research project.

Kids meet composers from the 1800s and from last year. Symphony halls and recording studios. Names they’ve never heard and names they’ve been singing along to their whole lives.

So the next time a movie gives your kid chills or a game makes their heart race, they’ll know exactly who to thank.

Part of the Music Careers for Kids series. Written by a former elementary music educator turned bestselling children’s book author, Vicky Weber strives to make learning fun through musical picture books kids ask for again.

Purchase this as a paperback, interactive digital eBook, or bundle both and save!