Books like Music in My Heart by Erin Falligant

During the turbulent summer of 1968, 11‑year‑old Delphine and her sisters travel from Brooklyn to Oakland to reconnect with their abandoned mother, only to find themselves immersed in Black Panther activism and a quest for family truth.

During the 1960s, a fourteen‑year‑old African American boy in Greenville, North Carolina, uses his typing skills to voice his commitment to the Civil Rights movement.

In a racially divided Alabama middle school of 1970, Lu uses her talent for track to forge new friendships and confront social cliques while the school grapples with segregation and the early civil rights movement.

In 1960s Detroit, Melody, a spirited African‑American girl, earns a solo for Youth Day at her church and must choose a song that reflects the era’s civil‑rights hope, family struggles and national tragedy.

Illustrated and rhythmic prose brings to life the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, a pivotal event in Alabama’s civil rights history.

In 1956, six‑year‑old Sarah Marie visits her grandmother in the South and confronts segregation; by the next year, she sees the beginnings of change waiting at home.

A joyful portrait of two young girls who, inspired by their community, join the Civil Rights movement and help blaze a path toward freedom and justice.

What is music? Does music deserve a place in general education? If so, why? And what should be taught? And how? This text builds new answers to these questions through a wide-ranging examination of music as a diverse human practice. The result is a ground-breaking philosophy of music education that provides critically reasoned perspectives on the nature and significance of performing, listening, musicianship, multiculturalism, creativity, consciousness, curriculum development, and more. Organized in three parts, Music Matters is exceptional for the attention it pays to many aspects of music and education that previous music education doctrine either misses or ignores altogether. Part I probes past and present relationships between philosophy and music education. Part II builds a philosophy of music education based on a new way of thinking about the nature and value of music. Part III proposes a new concept of music curriculum development for music teaching and learning. Following an incisive critique of past thinking, this important text develops a multidimensional concept of music that explains why music making and listening are unique forms of thinking and unique sources of the most important kinds of knowing that human beings can gain. In a richly detailed narrative that examines a wealth of recent philosophical and psychological research, the author constructs a compelling philosophical foundation that allows teachers to affirm to themselves and others that music deserves a central place in the education of all people. Among the many working ideas of this new philosophy is a distinctive concept of "curriculum-as-practicum" that explains how music educators can fulfill their educational mandate. The author constructs a new concept of music education, one designed to stimulate, guide, and support the efforts of pre-service and practicing music teachers as they tackle the many theoretical and practical issues involved in music education. He provides rigorous reflections on the "why, what, and how" of music teaching and learning that serve as catalysts for critical thinking and individual-philosophy building. Through cogent and comprehensive discussions, Music Matters argues convincingly that music is one of the most vital, dynamic, and practical pursuits in the human repertoire and, therefore, fundamental to the full development of the individual and collective self.

During a pivotal summer in 1963, fourteen-year-old Esther Young confronts her own identity as 18-year‑old King‑Roy Johnson, charged with murder, takes residence in her family home.

In 1963 Alabama, 14‑year‑old Stone Parker organizes a children’s march for civil rights after two classmates die in a church bomb explosion.

In Birmingham, Alabama, 1963, Monica Clark‑Robinson shows how children and teens, guided by Dr. Martin Luther King, join marches against segregation, illustrating the power of youth in the civil rights fight.