Why not add some music to your books and food mix? Bruce Springsteen’s latest release, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions features his interpretation of 13 traditional songs associated with American folk music icon, Pete Seeger. It’s an album that both parents and children can enjoy, even if they aren’t Springsteen fans.

Several of the Springsteen/Seeger songs deal with figures from American folk tales and history – Jesse James, John Henry, the Erie Canal, and the Buffalo Gals. Another song – Froggie Went A-Courtin’ – is from a classic American story.

Some terrific books to go along with We Shall Overcome are:

• Frog Went A-Courtin’ – For ages 4 to 8, this Caldecott Medal winner in 1955, this book beautifully illustrates the courtship and marriage of the frog and the mouse. The song has its origins in England and Scotland with the music having its origins in the southern Appalachian mountains. Author John Langstaff makes one story from the different versions sung around the U.S.
• Amazing Impossible Erie Canal – (Grades 2 to 6) This gorgeous book by Cheryl Harness discusses the need for the canal, the politics of its planning and building, the workings of the locks and canals, and the pride people took in the accomplishment of this engineering feat including the celebration that marked the completion of the canal in 1825.
• That Dancin’ Dolly – (preschool through grade 1) – The traditional American song “Buffalo Gals” is adapted into book form with cut-paper illustrations. A little gal invites her favorite redheaded dolly “the one with the hole in her stockin” to dance, and the two friends leap and frolic till the moon comes up. This is a great book to bring the Buffalo Gals song from the Springsteen album to younger children.
• John Henry – For ages 4 to 8, this charmingly illustrated tome by Bill Balcziak retells the tale of John Henry, the African American railroad legend known as the Steel Driving Man. The story of John Henry goes back more than 130 years and originated with the miners drilling the Big Bend Tunnel of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in West Virginia.

The book’s index gives facts around the story, a glossary, and where to go for additional information on the web, through the mail, and in the library. Also included in the book is a recipe for Southern cornbread.

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