Q&A with singing coaches,TV presenters and children's book authors Carrie and David Grant. Post a question about getting children involved in music.- ANSWERS BACK

Thanks for the copy! My 4 year old daughter loves it!!!

My almost 4 year old loves the book, in fact today I was the lion and she was the tiger playing the trumpet! She loves the story, and really loves the song, she dances like a maniac to it (sadly not in time yet!!!). I'm not a fan of CD readings of picture books, but this was quite a nice reading, if a little fast, but mostly I am reading it myself. The clapping and scales are rather rushed, I'd say it's more for the parent to learn from so we can practise the clapping and scales together without the CD, but they haven't yet really captured her interest, will keep trying though. The song has been running through my head all day for the last 3 days, ridiculously catchy. One last thought - is it the done thing to put chilli sauce on curry?

Thanks for our copy of Lion's Speedy Sauce book, it will be used so many times, my daughter loved the illustrations (she are a animal lover and she so happy with the lion) and its a great introduction to music to little ones!! Thanks again

Agree about the pacing of the story. DS much preferred when I read it to him. He liked the roar noise though.

I think there needed to be more information for the unmusical among us to get very much from the scales and rhythm bits. DS listened to those bits but neither of us really knew what to make of them. I did hate the song, but I don't imagine it was intended to appeal to me.

He took it to nursery where it went down well. Apparently the kids were all dancing and marching away. Whereas at home DS wouldn't dance to it at all.

Thanks for the book.
I have to say I agree with the pace of the story, my 5 year old enjoyed it but only I could turn the pages quick enough to keep up and it is less than two minutes long on the CD! She loved the songs and music activities though, more so than the actual story.

Thank you very much for the book. It's a lovely initiative to get adults and children learning music together.
DD (2) loved the pictures of the animals, and enjoyed dancing and trying to sing along to the CD. Song is quite catchy, and works well for small children. But the pace at which the book is read on the CD is too fast for a toddler - she was struggling to follow it and we barely had enough time to turn the pages.

Hello and thank you for the book.
I read this with my 4 year old son who loves music. He really enjoyed the book and CD and we had to read/listen several times as he was really enjoying himself....particularly the roaring!
The story alone is not particularly engaging for a child his age but combined with the CD is an absolute winner.

Thank you for the book - dd (3) is really enjoying it. The story does go by a little fast but she doesn't seem to mind. She is really keen to join in the clapping and scales exercises and likes playing the song. Great idea.

I was delighted when my Speedy Sauce book arrived - thank you very much. I read it with my DS of 15 months straight away - it was too young for him really but my DS of 5 yrs was quite engaged. We will try it again with the little one next year.

I was really hoping to use it in my music classes for Under 3s but actually the story moved too quickly and the CD runs too fast too. If it were slower, I think I could engage the children more with it and talk about it as it moves along. I will definitely do the scales with them and I loved the instructions for homemade Bongos. Thank you again.

Hmmm. Have to agree with you there, mrsb, but DD really didn't seem to care about that.

Slow down! The pace of the story is way too fast! The story was fun but didn't really make any sense.

Questions for Carrie and Grant.
Firstly my children love 'Popshop', are there any plans to make any more shows in the future?
Secondly what is the best age for a child to start learning a musical instrument at primary school?
Thank you

Thanks for the free copy of Lion's Speedy Sauce book. DS (nearly) 2 enjoyed looking at the pictures and listening to the CD. He liked the roaring Lion and the song. He loves to drum on anything and has a good go on his Dad's table drums so this as a great book for him although I think the activities would be better when he is nearer 3. I enjoyed the music but would have liked some more of the instruments (bongos) on the song and maybe some cultural influences (ie an African theme with the lion etc rather than a reggae type tune or maybe using Caribbean animals and setting with the spicy sauce!)
I love the idea of the series and encouraging a love of music and confidence in little ones, and look forward to reading the other books too.

So funny watching my 3 year old and 17 month old 'marching to the beat'. A lovely book.

Thank you for the book, my 4 year old really enjoyed it. The story is lovely and nicely illustrated. I would say that everything is just too fast! (Ironic as talking about rhythm!) You whizz through the story so that they don't really have time to take in and enjoy the pictures. Also each exercise could expanded more as going through each thing a couple of times isn't really enough. My DS got the hang of it, then move on, without actually allowing him to enjoy it. The exercises themselves are great and something I can do with my son at other times, but would have liked more time on each. With the scales my son was concentrating on the numbers so not singing the right notes (which he can do normally), so maybe laaa or something might be better, and expanding it to play high and low notes would be good.
So generally a great book and concepts, just everything is too fast!!

Thank you for the book. It's great. My 3 year old granddaughter really enjoyed having it read to her yesterday. We have still to listen to the CD (I'm saving it for a rainyday activity) but I'm sure she will love that too.

Hi
Thanks for the book. DD really enjoyed the story, but loved the song at the end & dancing around to the music. I can see her enjoyment of the book & CD growing with her as she gets a bit older too. We will definitely be getting a lot of use from this book
The illustrations are fantastic. DD thought turning the pages when the lion roared was great fun.
I think this is a fantastic concept and will have no hesitation in recommending it to friends with young children.

Thank you so much for our copy of the book - my almost 3 year old and I read it over and over again yesterday afternoon! For her, the best bit was singing the scales at the end and also the clapping practise that we both did. She also loved trying to turn the pages in time with the lion roar. I loved the illustrations, so colourful and cute. Loved it, would recommend

Thank you so much for sending me a copy of this book. My children (ages 3 and 5) really enjoyed it. Visually it is very appealing, and my children loved listening to the story on the CD. As a first read, they were only interested in the story, but we will definitely go back to it so they can join in with the physical, musical parts. My little boy is desperate to make his own bongos - we will save that up for a rainy day.

Thanks again, I am sure this is a book which we will revisit lots.

My son read the book this morning and he loved it, said he wants to read it again and would like to read more in the series. On that basis 5/5.

It was their first time using an audio book and they both loved listening to the story while following along in the book. The first track of the CD is the opening theme tune - Jump Up And Join In. It was very welcome and the children were instantly excited. After the intro, Carrie and David narrates the story about Lion, who finds an edible solution to keeping in time and rhythm.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It encourages children to be active and practise clapping with rhythm. In the last section of the book, they teach you how to make your own Bangin' Bongos. This book is not only fun, simple and enjoyable with great illustrations, it has great content.

Note, I would suggest that this book is not suitable to read at bedtime as it requires lots of actions.

Thank you for the free copy, we received it today. My children absolutely love 'Popshop' so they were so excited to get this book. We read the story on its own first which was ok. But then we put on the CD which was far better and the children were getting involved in the activities. Probably wasn't the best idea to play the CD just before bedtime!

I read Lion's Speedy Sauce with DD2 today (3 1/2) and she liked the story a lot. She did also like the CD although not the lion roaring so we couldn't listen to the audio of the story again as there was too much roaring!

I really liked the illustrations and the sing a long. Very catchy, I may regret that later :) I felt the story could have been developed a little more but perhaps that is just me expecting too much!

Thank you for the book and CD, it will be read /listened to many times I'm sure.

Thanks for the Lion's Speedy Sauce book. It's a great introduction to music for young boys and girls in the 3-7 age range with lovely colourful illustrations and story with CD making learning fun. It even tells children how to make bongos and there's a lovely singalong song too!

I'm a school drama teacher and we're doing the school version of Les Mis for our production next year. I have 5 hour-long sessions with our lead actors to prepare them before we start rehearsing with the others. What do you think I should focus on? I do have a singing background, btw, but have never coached young singers myself. Thanks.