Do you remember the first time you learned about a new word or concept? Chances are, you learned it from some form of entertainment: a TV show, a movie, or maybe even a book. Young readers love to share their knowledge that they’ve learned from books, and that knowledge is more likely to stick as the result of rhythmic language and the repetition of reading the same story over and over again. Author Johnny Odd Socks understands this and has sought out to create educational books in his What’s My… series. Below is a review of his book, What’s My Instrument, which teaches young kids about different rock instruments and how they are played, followed by an interview with the author.
What’s My Instrument? book summary
One day, Marilyn the Mongoose decides to start a band. So, she picks up several instruments and finds that she can’t play any of them. Finally, she discovers that she can sing and holds auditions to gather the rest of her bandmates. A collection of musically-talented animals arrives, and the band puts on a show. Told in rhyme, What’s My Instrument teaches young readers about different musical instruments and (literally) playing to your strengths.
Telling the story
What’s My Instrument is a picture book for young but verbal readers who can latch onto the sing-song rhythm of its rhyme while understanding what it’s trying to say. There’s no concrete conflict as much as a goal that Marilyn the Mongoose sets out to achieve. As a result, she finds that playing an instrument isn’t as easy as it looks.
Marilyn’s attempts to play each instrument instructs the reader as to how each instrument is played, including a piano, guitar, drums, trumpet, and even a turntable. However, she doesn’t take the time to practice and master each instrument. She’s also limited by her physical features, such as her sharp claws and short stature.
Marilyn doesn’t get discouraged, though. Instead, she finds her strength in vocals and gathers up others to play the rest. This shows readers that a band is a group who each use their strengths to create music and entertain others. Find the thing that you are good at, and use it to contribute to something bigger.
The language
The vocabulary in this book is appropriate for a picture book. The wording is simple and easy to understand for a young reader. There aren’t a ton of words on each page, just four lines to complete the rhyme, or sometimes partial rhyme, scheme.
The story itself only takes up 13 pages. So it’s a book you could read a few times before bed each night and finish in just a few minutes. It ends abruptly as well, and we don’t get to see Marilyn and her friends revel in the satisfaction of having put on a successful concert or sharing the story’s moral or purpose.
The illustrations
The illustrations in What’s My Instrument? are a little sloppy for my taste. Sometimes characters are floating in white space on the page. Other times, there is a lot of white space on the pages that do incorporate an actual setting, making the drawing feel incomplete.
However, they are colorful and accurately depict the images that go along with the text. It was also a smart choice to change the color of the text on pages where the normal black text would be difficult to read behind a darker background.
Some of the design choices are also really interesting. I found it funny that the band was made up of talking animals, but the audience that they play for is made up of humans. The animals that make up the band, too, are not your typical go-to picture book animals, like bears, dogs, and cats. Instead, they’re more obscure choices including a mongoose, aardvark, kangaroo, and iguana. This presents the opportunity to learn about new animals on top of new instruments.
My recommendation
I recommend this book to anyone with preschool-aged children who like short books that rhyme and that incorporate learning opportunities into their story. This book will hold the attention of the average picture book reader, and it will give them some new knowledge about instruments to show off to their friends and family.
Author Interview
About the author and book
Author Name: Johnny Oddsocks
Author Links:
Book Titles
What’s My Instrument?
Freddy the Bird
Genre: children’s picture books
Links to buy:
Book Summaries
What’s My Instrument?
Marilyn the Mongoose is keen to join a band – but she can’t play an instrument!
What’s My Instrument is an engaging picture book which encourages children to take an interest in music and to explore a hobby to find their own niche and talent. They will discover new instruments as Marilyn tries to find the one which is perfect for her – usually with funny and disastrous consequences! Find out which one she will play in the big concert.
Freddy the Bird
Meet Freddy, a happy and friendly parrot, just minding his own business in his jungle home. Unfortunately for Freddy, every single day turns into a big adventure!
The Leap of Faith is the first book is Freddy’s mad-cap comic tale which promises laughs at every turn.
Book Review Excerpts
What’s My Instrument?
“What’s My Instrument? is a real treasure…This is a wonderful way to teach young people about music, musical instruments, and about out own individually unique talents.”
Freddy the Bird
“Fun and humorous”
“Catchy and engaging”
“My four year old daughter loved it!”
“Can’t wait for the next one!”
Talking Shop
What is the central theme or message of your story? What do you want readers to take away from it?
The central theme of What’s My Instrument? is that whatever your strengths and weaknesses, there is always something that you can be amazing at. The main character, Marilyn the Mongoose, has to persevere to find the instrument which is perfect for her – but she does! This will be the central theme for all the What’s My? stories – finding what you are good at, and in each book exploring a new topic and having some laughs along the way. The second book in the series What’s My Job? is coming later in the year!
How active are you in the online writing community? How has this community helped you as a writer?
I’m pretty active as I also run a blog where I feature other people (writers and others), do author interviews and review children’s books. It’s definitely helped me as a writer, marketer and all around. It’s both interesting and inspiring to hear about other people’s passions and it’s helped me meet some great people, particularly in the writing industry who have helped me out (and vice versa). In terms of improving my writing / illustrations, when you are reading a book with an intent to review it then it does help you learn what works well for the audience and what doesn’t so well – which is really useful to know when you are writing your own material!
How long did it take to write your book from the day you got the idea to write it to the day you published it?
Freddy the Bird took me around 6 months to complete.
What’s My Instrument? a bit longer as it was my first children’s book so there was more of a learning curve! It’s hard to keep track of time when you have toddlers / no sleep! The actual writing part doesn’t take me too long, it’s the illustrations that are most time consuming for me – but as I find drawing so relaxing then I really don’t mind!
How long have you considered yourself a writer? Did you have any formal training, or is it something you learned as you went?
I’ve always considered myself a writer on some level. I’ve always loved creative writing, and since I could I’ve been writing funny little stories and poems. When I went to university this graduated into writing lots of songs and lyrics. I guess I first considered myself a “proper” writer when I wrote my first sci-fi novel a few years later (under my real name – shock horror, I wasn’t christened Johnny Oddsocks!) Then the last couple of years, now that I have children I’ve moved onto children’s books!
Are your books for sale at any book stores? Have you tried any other methods of selling hard copies in person versus online (book sales, indie author events, etc.)?
My books are both for sale on Amazon, but they’ve both recently had their paperback distribution streams widened so they should now be available from the websites of all good book stores! And in theory – all book stores should be able to stock the paperbacks or order them in for you, so fingers crossed this happens! I’ve not attended any author events so far, but maybe in the future!
“What If” Scenarios
If you could have one person that you admire, living or dead, read your book, who would it be?
Roald Dahl, for sure. The best children’s author of all time (in my opinion) so who wouldn’t want him to have read their book?! I always loved his wicked sense of humour, and I imagine that as my boys grow up and I write for slightly older age groups that you will start to see my sense of humour come through even more.
A wealthy reader buys 100 copies of your book and tells you to hand them out to anyone you wish. Who do you give them to?
I’d give them to schools, nurseries, children’s libraries – whichever were in the most need. Allowing children access to books, learning and their imaginations is a vital part of their upbringing and gives them so much enjoyment. I read What’s My Instrument? at my little boy’s nursery on World Book Day, complete with lots of toys instruments, and the children had so much fun. Giving to these kinds of organisations would allow the most children to enjoy them.
Your favorite character that you’ve written comes to life for one day. What do you do together for 24 hours?
We rock out! I imagine that Marilyn the Mongoose would like nothing more than going to a music festival, watching some bands and then playing a headline set at the end of the day. Whether I’d be asked to join the band or just provide moral support is debatable…
You’re given $10,000 to spend on marketing for your book. How do you spend it?
Well it would have to be to put on a concert! Marilyn the Mongoose would surely love to play a big outdoor children’s concert, and would be joined by her band members and other musical friends. There would be all kinds of other activities, games, merch tents, food and ice cream, and obviously a bar for the grown-ups!
Or I could spend it on Amazon ads… but what would you do?!
Would you rather own your own book store or your own publishing house, and what would you sell or publish?
It’s a really tricky one because I would love either. I would love to own a book store, but one that hosted events too – author signings, storytelling shows, writing classes etc. It would stock all kinds of good books – indie and traditional and I imagine it would cross my favourite genres – children’s. sci-fi, fantasy with all the best from other genres and non-fiction too! That sounds like it’s becoming quite a big shop though!
Just For Fun
Your trademark feature.
As my name suggests, my trademark feature is my odd socks! The brighter and odder the better – and who cares if you wear a Christmas sock in the summer?!
What legacy do you want to leave behind?
Just one of bringing enjoyment into people’s life. As simple as that!
Food you’d like to win a lifetime supply of.
This is really difficult. I want to say chocolate eclairs, but cheese or pizza seems like a much more logical answer because there are so many different varieties. But as chocolate eclairs are great for breakfast, lunch and dinner I think I will stick with them.
The topic you can’t shut up about/the topic you wish everyone would shut up about.
Well I guess this is an easy one at the moment – COVID. It’s so vitally important that we understand what’s going on with it in our various parts of the world, and how we go about doing whatever we can to beat it. So I can’t stop talking about it, and nor can anyone else! I wish it was finished though, everyone was well again and life could go back to normal.
A talent you have and a talent you wish you had.
It’s the same answer for both really! I love music and play a number of musical instruments – but I really wish that instead of being OK at quite a few of them I was amazing at just one! I’d love to be able to thrash out a guitar solo like Van Halen.
Buy it!
Buy a copy of What’s My Instrument? here, and help support local bookstores! This is an affiliate link, and I will earn a commission on any sales.
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What’s My Instrument sounds like a fun book. Thanks for the chance.