Book Reviews: Where are all the instruments? West Africa

Where are all the instruments? West Africa is the latest publication by Nate Holder as part of Why Music series, following on from Where are all the Black Female Composers?, Why is my Piano Black and White? and Where are all the instruments? European Orchestra. Illustrated brilliantly by Charity Russell, the Why Music books encourage readers to begin with a question and discover music alongside diverse characters and a range of musical styles.

Being a parent as well as a teacher, I handed this latest book to my nine- and four-year-old children who promptly devoured it. The book follows Olivia, Zaki, Phoebe and Callum (The Why Squad) on their quest for knowledge. We learn about 16 instruments from West Africa, their distinctive qualities, and how they are played. My youngest absolutely loved finding other instruments cleverly hidden among the illustrations.

The book begins with a music teacher telling her class that they will be looking at instruments from Africa. Recognising that this is a vast continent of 54 countries, the teacher decides to focus on a particular area: West Africa. One of The Why Squad asks the teacher which instruments come from West Africa. After a pause, the teacher admits to only knowing that djembes are traditionally West African – an astute point that speaks volumes. So perhaps the question should be, where are all the books like this one?

Now that it's clear that no-one in the class, teacher included, knows the names of any West African instruments, the squad of friends embarks upon an epic journey. The book is not just about musical instruments but is punctuated by geographical landmarks of note, such as Arch 22 in Banjul and Lake Retba, known as Lac Rose – the pink lake. Reading Holder's blog on this new book, he says, ‘When putting this book together it was important to me to make sure that West Africa was represented in a positive way. A way that showed off some famous places, cities and monuments, not just nature and animals.’

For a teacher, the reach of this book goes way beyond its pages and there is excellent scope for building a series of lessons around what is discovered. There is a map available to pre-order from The Why Books’ website as well as an interactive map in development which features each instrument, with additional photos and videos to enrich your teaching.

Also worth consideration is time perusing The Why Music website which features all the resources available in this series, as well as the podcast featuring a diverse range of composers which could form an excellent starting point for listening in the classroom.