The Deaf Musicians

The Deaf Musicians is a collaboratively-written picture book by Pete Seeger and Paul DuBois Jacobs, with illustrations done by R. Gregory Christe. This story is one about overcoming obstacles, and how sometimes you can still pursue your dreams even if troubles may come your way. The Deaf Musicians is about a snazzy piano player named Lee who enjoys playing jazzy music with his band every night in a club. Unfortunately, Lee begins to lose his hearing and his band-mates certainly notice when he's not following their cues or hitting the right notes. They tell Lee that they can't have him in the band anymore because no one wants to listen to an off-key pianist. Feeling dejected, Lee takes the subway home. On the way, he sees a sign for a school for the deaf and begins thinking that maybe there is some way to learn something new. After attending the school and meeting new friends, Lee learns sign language and creates a new band of his own that "plays" music through sign language! His band becomes very popular and he and his friends have so much fun playing music again!

I thought this was an amazingly optimistic picture book that includes positive characters, experiences and outcomes. I like that they feature characters with disabilities to help diversify the text. It portrays trying new things to be a comfortable and enjoyable experience, which is great for the students who might be struggling with the same thing. Beginning new things can often be scary because you don't know how people might treat you, but this book shows readers that you can continue to do what you love even if it's in a different way than others might expect. Because this book has so many onomatopoeias that help tell the musical parts of the story, I think this is a great book to use in creative writing or when teaching about sound. Even further, teachers can use this book as an introduction to learning American Sign Language and see how they can communicate through signing.

 Seeger, P., & Jacobs, P. D. (2006). The deaf musicians. New York: The Penguin Group.