SONG AFTER SONG: THE MUSICAL LIFE OF JULIE ANDREWS

Congratulations, Jany Campana! You are the winner of a prize pack from Molly Ruttan!  You'll receive a copy of the beautiful book and some super-fun swag to go with the awesome, wild book!  I know you'll enjoy the prize!  Thanks, Molly, for your generosity and thanks, Jany, for your support of PBJamz!  

A Musical, Writerly discussion with Julie Hedlund

Come join Julie Hedlund and me as we have a fun conversation about the power of music, the power of revision, and the power of perseverance.    We chat about the writing process and the musical connections, as well as a sneak peek at what's coming next for Julie Hedlund.  If you're a Julie Andrews fan or a Julie Hedlund fan, you do not want to miss this conversation!

SONG AFTER SONG: THE MUSICAL LIFE OF JULIE ANDREWS

​From the opening spread to the last lines, Julie Hedlund weaves a musical story of a musical life.  Word after word, line after line, page after page she spins a web of story, capturing Andrews' struggles and triumphs in beautiful language that matches Julie Andrews' beautiful voice and indomitable spirit.  The illustrator, Ilaria Urbinati, adds beautiful strands that complement the story!  Shiny silhouettes and a reflective "undies" illustration are just two of the artistic highlights in this gorgeous book! As a fan, I found myself with tears in my eyes in a couple places, and closed the book with even more love and appreciation for Julie Andrews and her phenomenal and multi-stranded career.
Author: Julie Hedlund
Illustrator: Ilaria Urbinati
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Publication Date: September 5, 2023

A Little Jam. . .(The Music Kind)

Since PBJamz is all about musical connections, I think this is the perfect music video to feature!  It's a wonderful video for music teachers to use to integrate pitch, solfege, and would also work beautifully to use with bells, boomwhackers or other color coded instruments for young students.  If this one isn't what you need there are lots more videos on the YouTube playlist -- performances, movie music, music activities, and more.  Peruse the list and I'm sure you'll find something suitable for your situation.

Teacher Tips, Tricks and Topics

I've been using this book in my music classroom this week. The kids have enjoyed learning about her. and there are lots of follow-up ideas/topics/lessons you could teach from this book. I'll highlight a few here, and there are more on the Pinterest board in the links section, and in the YouTube playlist as well.

• There are other biographies about Julie Andrews, so it would be interesting to compare the styles of writing OR the information they chose to include or not.
• Julie has written a number of books in conjunction with her daughter, so it would be a prime opportunity to do an author study on Julie and Emma.
• They have written a series surrounding a "very fairy princess", so that would be another avenue to study.
• You also could do an author study on Julie Hedlund, the author of this book and 3 others : read, compare, discuss, etc.
• A life study of Julie Andrews would be perfect for any time, but especially for March (Women's History Month) or October (her birthday month).
• Social studies connections: 
  • England
    • (specifically maybe the differences in village life and London life -- Chim Chim Cheree would be a good musical/movie tie-in for this)
    • The book mentions singing for the Queen of England, so that's a great tidbit you could explore more in lots of different ways. In that performance, Julie sang the English national anthem, which would be a possibility for further study too.
  • World War II (Bombing, using underground train stations as bomb shelters, etc)
  • Languages (This discussion came up in my music class when I showed a clip of her singing at 12 in French "Why can't we hear what she's saying?"  Most kids don't really understand languages and why they are different. Dialects would be another possible discussion.
  • History of photography, film, movies, etc. -- early photos/videos in black and white -- why? (This question also came up in my music classes this week).
• Math connections
  • Timeline (back matter) -- Crossover with Social Studies
  • Story problems with timeline and facts in the book. (ie. If Julie Andrews was born in 1935, what year was it when she sang with Ted. What year did she sing for the Queen?  How long was it from the time she sang for the first time until she sang for the last time? etc. . . .
• Arts
  • Differences in on-stage and onscreen 
  • Various roles of Julie
  • The music of Julie Andrews
• SEL
  • Accepting responsibility at a young age
  • Using music to deal with big feelings
  • Difficulties of war
  • Challenges of separated parents
• ELA
  • Timelines (Crossover with Social Studies and Math)  a feature of text in NF -- part of backmatter
  • Author techniques
    • Repetition
    • Alliteration
    • Lyrical language
    • Figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, etc.)
  • Discuss features of the art -- how does it help convey meaning? What details are left out by the author and supplied by the illustrator?  What details in the text are supported by the illustrator?
  • There are lots of forms of several verbs in this book, particularly sing (sings, sang, singing, song, etc.), so it would provide lots of practice with tenses and verb conjugation.  Also, in the timeline the verbs are all in present tense, while in the book most of them are past tense, so it's an opportunity to compare the two tenses and when you would use each.
  • strum(med) and hum(med) would provide an opportunity to point out doubling consonants in short vowel words that end with one consonant.
  • voice voices vocal would be an opportunity to talk about roots and how to look for familiar parts of words -- maybe create a list of related words voice, voices, voiced, voicing, etc. (also the fact that voice can be a noun or a verb)
  • The book is full of music vocabulary and other rich vocabulary which could extend students' working lexicon.
• Science
  • Vocal chords and how they work
  • Pitch (highness and lowness of sounds)

Tips and Topics for Music Teachers

• Survey of Julie Andrews' vocal performances (My students have been fascinated by her operatic performance when she was 12, and have loved the Spoonful of Sugar snippet from Mary Poppins.) There are so many amazing musical performances you could choose.  She sang with so many artists, too,  The sky is the limit for this one. Check out the YouTube playlist to start.
• Pitch -- Lots of ways you could feature pitch.  The video clip with her singing at 12yo in operatic style is full of pitch variation. You could also use DoReMi for pitch exploration.
• The video featured above has color coded pitch changes which would pair beautifully with using Boomwhackers or bells. (I also added color-coded dots to correlate on my piano, keyboard and barred instruments to add variety and give more students opportunities to play.)
• Solfege is a natural fit with Do-Re-Mi as well. There's a video in the YouTube playlist that has the solfege signs along with that song which works really well, and I really like it because it has the lyrics with the different spellings of ie re vs ray, etc. I think it's good for students to be able to see different ways those sounds can be spelled as well.
• You could do a whole spin-off lesson or even a unit on Kites.  You could play Let's Go Fly a Kite, and do all sorts of fun musical things with that song.  Easily create kite vocal exploration posters or slides following the path of the kite.  You could use kites visually to represent a measure with 4 beats in the 4 sections of the kites or create a fun music center where students match tails to the kite (note names, note values, solfege,etc, -- anything you could create a matching game. There are lots of kite ideas on the Pinterest board. It would be a great partner unit with the art teacher so they could make beautiful artistic kites. (Or with a science/STEAM teacher to make kites that really fly.  Fabulous interdisciplinary unit!
• The book is full of musical vocabulary that you could pull for a word wall, do a musical word study, reinforce vocabulary that you've taught, etc.:
  • melody
  • timbre
  • music
  • rhythm
  • whistle
  • symphony
  • piano
  • hum (med)
  • sang
  • voice
  • singer
  • harmony
  • steady 
  • staccato
  • guitar
  • strum(med)
  • sing
  • practiced
  • singing
  • note
  • scales
  • vocal
  • songs
  • stage
  • audience
  • applause
  • spotlight
  • concert halls
  • accolades
  • programs
  • performances
  • measure
  • variety show
  • crescendo

Writing Prompts from Tonnye

1. Write about a time you had to give up something that was important to you. How did that make you feel? How did you deal with it?
2. The author says that Julie used singing to express all the emotions that she had.  What do you do to express big or hard emotions? How do you handle those big feelings?
3. Julie's mother played piano, Ted played guitar and Julie sang. If you could choose one of those talents, which would you choose, and why?
4. Julie's family was in danger during WWII during the bombings. Have you ever been in danger? What did you do and where did you go to stay safe?
5. Listen to at least 5 of Julie's songs.  Write about which one was your favorite and why you liked it the best.
6.  Use the title SONG AFTER SONG and write your own story that matches that title.
7. The beginning and ending line are almost the same. Write a poem or a story where the beginning line and the ending line are the same.
8. Read the first line (first spread) of the book. It tells you a lot about Julie and where she grew up. If someone was writing your biography, what would the first line be? Make it as beautiful and full of detail as you can.
9. Julie didn't enjoy singing until she changed teachers. Has there ever been something you didn't love and later you learned to love it? What made the difference for you?
10. Julie's vocal teacher taught her lots of important things. Write a letter to a teacher who made a big difference for you or taught you some really important things.
11. Write a letter from Julie to her vocal teacher, Madame Lillian.
12. Write an acrostic poem using Julie's name and writing things you learned about Julie for each letter.
13. Have you ever performed on stage for an audience? How did it make you feel?  Would you want to do it again? Why or Why not?
14. What does it mean when it says she wrapped her voice around the world like a hug?

Writing Tips from Julie

Three tips for aspiring writers:

1. READ way more picture books than you think you need to. Make sure most of them were published within the last 5 years so you'll understand the modern market for picture books. Certainly read the kind of books you want to write, but read beyond that, too. I only decided I wanted to write a PB biography after I read a bunch and fell in love with them. 

2. WRITE way more picture books than you want to. (Notice the subtle change in the advice there?) Most beginners have an idea or maybe two that they're passionate about getting published, but the truth is, you have to write a LOT in order to get good enough to get published in today's market. And it's not enough to be working on the same 1 or 2 manuscripts (trust me, I've been there). The whole reason I started the 12 x 12 Picture Book Writing Challenge is because I knew I needed to write lots more to find my voice and build a body of work. 

3. FIND a writing community. Preferably one with other picture book creators. Nobody publishes books alone. You need people in your corner who can give you objective critiques of your work and know what the writing life is like. They'll be the ones to celebrate your successes and lift you up when the going gets tough. I'm going to squeeze in a 4th tip here too, which is to PERSEVERE. You WILL get published if you don't give up and have patience and joy in the process. A writing community helps immensely to keep things fun and joyful.

Links, More Fun, Extensions for Families and Everyone!

YouTube playlist full of great music, performances, music activities, and more.

Pinterest board with many activities, music, and tons of teaching ideas and fun connections.

PBJamz Snack

For a PBJ snack as sweet, delectable, rich, and full of complexity as Julie Andrews' voice, talent, personality, and career, look no further than this decadent salty-sweet treat, which will look equally at home at the tea table and in the school lunchbox. Give it a try and find lots of other great recipes at www.shugarysweet.com 
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Guest Links and Giveaways

Website
12 x 12 website
Twitter
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Simon and Schuster link for SONG AFTER SONG

To purchase SONG AFTER SONG:
Amazon

Barnes & Noble

To order signed copies of SONG AFTER SONG:
 https://shop.secondstartotherightbooks.com/personalized-pre-order-song-after-song-musical-life-julie-andrews