Campbell, Patricia Shehan. Music, Education, and Diversity: Bridging Cultures and Communities. New York, NY: Teacher’s College Press, 2018.

This book provides important insights for educators in music, the arts, and other subjects on the role that music can play in the curriculum as a powerful bridge to cultural understanding. The author documents key ideas and practices that have influenced current music education, particularly through efforts of ethnomusicologists in collaboration with educators, and examines some of the promises and pitfalls in shaping multicultural education through music. The text highlights World Music Pedagogy as a gateway to studying other cultures as well as the importance of including local music and musicians in the classroom.

Mattern, Mark. Acting in Concert: Music, Community and Political Action. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.

In this lively account of politics and popular music, Mark Mattern develops the concept of "acting in concert," a metaphor for community-based political action through music. Through three detailed case studies of Chilean, Cajun, and American Indian popular music, Mattern explores the way popular muisicians forge community and lead members of their communities in several distinct kinds of political action that would be difficult or impossible among individuals who are not linked by communal ties.

Tolan, Sandy. Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land. New York: Bloomsbury, USA, 2016.

It is an unlikely story. Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, a child from a Palestinian refugee camp, confronts an occupying army, gets an education, masters an instrument, dreams of something much bigger than himself, and then, through his charisma and persistence, inspires scores of others to work with him to make that dream real. The dream: a school to transform the lives of thousands of children-- as Ramzi's life was transformed-- through music.

Tunstall, Tricia. Changing Lives: Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Transformative Power of Music. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.

This is the story of conductor extraordinaire Gustavo Dudamel, and the music education program, El Sistema, that led him to success.

Amin, Manisha Jolie. Dancing to the Flute. New York: Atria Books, 2013.

Rich in texture and atmosphere, Dancing to the Flute is a heartwarming story of a community’s joys and sorrows, the transformative powers of music, the many faces of friendship, and a boy’s journey, against all odds, to become a man.

Galloway, Steven. The Cellist of Sarajevo. New York: Penguin Group USA, 2009.

In a city under siege, four people whose lives have been upended are ultimately reminded of what it is to be human. From his window, a musician sees twenty-two of his friends and neighbors waiting in a breadline. Then, in a flash, they are killed by a mortar attack. In an act of defiance, the man picks up his cello and decides to play at the site of the shelling for twenty-two days, honoring their memory. Elsewhere, a young man leaves home to collect drinking water for his family and, in the face of danger, must weigh the value of generosity against selfish survivalism. A third man, older, sets off in search of bread and distraction and instead runs into a long-ago friend who reminds him of the city he thought he had lost, and the man he once was. As both men are drawn into the orbit of cello music, a fourth character—a young woman, a sniper—holds the fate of the cellist in her hands. As she protects him with her life, her own army prepares to challenge the kind of person she has become. A novel of great intensity and power, and inspired by a true story, The Cellist of Sarajevo poignantly explores how war can change one’s definition of humanity, the effect of music on our emotional endurance, and how a romance with the rituals of daily life can itself be a form of resistance.

Powers, Richard. The Time of our Singing. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004.

On Easter day, 1939, at Marian Anderson’s epochal concert on the Washington Mall, David Strom, a German Jewish émigré scientist, meets Delia Daley, a young Philadelphia Negro studying to be a singer. Their mutual love of music draws them together, and—against all odds and better judgment—they marry. They vow to raise their children beyond time, beyond identity, steeped only in song. Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up, however, during the Civil Rights era, coming of age in the violent 1960s, and living out adulthood in the racially retrenched late century. Jonah, the eldest, “whose voice could make heads of state repent,” follows a life in his parents’ beloved classical music. Ruth, the youngest, devotes herself to community activism and repudiates the white culture her brother represents. Joseph, the middle child and the narrator of this generation-bridging tale, struggles to find himself and remain connected to them both.

Armstrong, Jennifer; Koertge, Ronald; Bruchac, Joseph, et. al. What a Song Can Do: 12 Riffs on the Power of Music. New York: Laurel-Leaf, 2006.

This compelling collection of stories explores the powerful impact that music has in our lives—especially in the lives of teens. Each story strikes a new note: Ron Koertge introduces us to the boys in the band—the marching band; Joseph Bruchac contributes a Native American boy with no rhythm whatsoever; Jennifer Armstrong writes about what was perhaps the first battle of the bands—during the American Civil War; and David Levithan offers up a love song that speaks powerfully to an unintended audience. But while each story is different, they combine into harmonic song of praise—for the depths music can reach in us, and the power it has to bind us together.

Verma, Sunanda and Spannuth, Carolin. Namaste, Lata Mangeshkar!: Her Voice Touches at Least a Billion Hearts. Singapore: The Indologist Pte., Ltd., 2017.

This is the absorbing story of a girl, Lata, born in a small town of India. At five years of age, she was a theater singer and artiste. At thirteen, she became the sole bread winner of her family when her father passed away. She moved cities, walked long distances and survived on cups of tea in search of work. Lata Mangeshkar went on to become one of the most famous playback singers and a woman who fought for the rights of playback singers.

Castrovilla, Selene. Saved By The Music. Lodi, NJ: WestSide Book, 2009.

Fifteen year old Willow reluctantly spends her summer on an old barge helping her aunt convert the vessel into a floating concert hall, but her time there is brightened by the introverted and mysterious teenage boy living alone on a neighboring sailboat.

Engle, Margarita. Drum Dream Girl.Boston: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2015.

Girls cannot be drummers. Long ago on an island filled with music, no one questioned that rule—until the drum dream girl. In her city of drumbeats, she dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. She had to keep quiet. She had to practice in secret. But when at last her dream-bright music was heard, everyone sang and danced and decided that both girls and boys should be free to drum and dream.

Reynolds, Peter H. Playing From The Heart. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 2017.

When a young boy begins to play on his family's piano, reveling in the fun of plunking the keys, his father signs him up for lessons so that he can learn to play properly. With his father's encouragement, Raj learns notes, then scales, then songs, and finally classical pieces that his father can recognize and be proud of. But the more Raj practices and the more skilled he becomes, the less he enjoys playing, until he grows up and stops playing altogether. But when his father becomes ill and asks Raj to play for him, will Raj remember how to play from the heart?

Ryan, Pam Munoz. Echo. New York, NY: Scholastic, Inc., 2016.

Lost in the Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and finds himself entwined in a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica--and decades later three children, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California find themselves caught up in the same thread of destiny in the darkest days of the twentieth century, struggling to keep their families intact, and tied together by the music of the same harmonica.

Sullivan, Sandy and Barry Root. Passing the Music Down. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2011.

A boy and his family befriend a country fiddler, who teaches the boy all about playing the old tunes, which the boy promises to help keep alive. Inspired by Melvin Wine and Jake Krack.