Archive for March 7th, 2012
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This is the Day
Traditional Words and Tune
Song Adapted by Phillis Gershator
Illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
The end papers of the book are printed with the music for the song adapted by Yonah Gershator.
A link to Yonah Gershator’s recording of “This is the Day” from album “This is the Day: Story Songs and Sing Alongs,”
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AKMLG0/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk5
This book features “A Note from the Author,” which explains a bit about the song’s origins and that this particular adaptation was to create, “a tale of happy adoptions.” It’s wonderful to have a Singable Picture Book that adopted children can sing and feel special about. I have a number of friends who were adopted and have heard them talk eloquently about their personal and emotional experiences. I hope that all children feel as loved and happy in their families as depicted in this book.
The Author Note also mentions two outlets for researching songs (she used these services to find information about the song in this book):
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Sing Out!
http://www.singout.org/
The mission of “Sing Out!” is the preservation of musical heritage.
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Joe “The Songfinder” Hickerson
Who was for years Director and Librarian of
Archive of Folk Song at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/archive.html
The Author’s Note also mentions that singer-songwriter Rosalie Sorrels recorded the song first.
I was not able to find a YouTube with Rosalie Sorrels singing the song, but I did find a version recorded by Jefferson Starship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkz4safz1Do
I like this version very much. But, though the melody is somewhat similar, the words are different and the melody that accompanies this book has rather lost the nice folky quality of this recording (which, honestly, I like better). It might be possible to fit the lyrics of the book to the melody used by Jefferson Starship. We’ll see…
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Gershator’s webpage for this song and book
http://gershator.com/phillis/phillis-thisistheday.html
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As always, Marjorie Priceman’s illustrations are whimsical, brightly colorful and fun, reminding me a lot of the picture books I had as a kid.
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