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Age-Old Folk Song Comes to Life in New Children's Book by Texas-Based Music Teacher

Posted on: Thursday, 8 January 2009, 12:15 CST

DALLAS, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Sue McCallum Melton, an elementary music teacher from Plano, Texas, has written Chairs to Mend, a story about a young girl named Rachel who brings a folk song to life after listening to a number of different street cries in her 1880s Boston neighborhood.

"After years of telling this story to my students," says the first-time author, "I decided to write Chairs to Mend to help readers learn the song, understand the origins and expansion of cultural traditions in America, as well as to encourage their own creativity."

Follow Rachel through this richly illustrated and well-paced story as she experiences the street cries of the chair mender, the fish monger and the rag man before composing her own folk song.

According to the Kodaly-trained author, the word-for-word narration on the accompanying CD uses a variety of singing voices and provides a good vocal model for healthy singing.

"Any reader will know and be able to sing Chairs to Mend after experiencing the book and CD together."

A music teacher for over 20 years, Melton earned a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Texas at Austin and a Masters of Music Education from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She holds membership in MENC, TMEA, OAKE, and AOSA.

Bill Young is a staff illustrator with Brown Books Publishing Group. Chairs to Mend is his sixth book. Young, a Disney-trained artist, has a passion for vibrant colors and both realistic and expressive characters.

Chairs to Mend was recently published by The P3 Press, a division of Brown Books Publishing Group, an independent publisher based in Dallas, TX.

More information about Rachel and her song can be found at www.chairstomend.com.

SOURCE Brown Books Publishing Group

Source: PR Newswire

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