Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin (Aladdin Picture Books) Paperback – Picture Book, May 1, 2000

This was one of my daughter's favorite books as a child. I just bought a copy for her baby, who is now seven months old; she wants to share the joy of books and reading and this fun story with him. She really liked the phrase of the title

I must admit, I didn't like this book to begin with.As other reviewers mentioned, this book is not written to a child's level. I usually like to buy my daughter books that have bigger words sprinkled in the verses, but it seems like this book is crammed with the bigger words. Yes, the descriptions of the sound were accurate - but would a preschooler really understand the descriptions without hearing the instruments? I didn't think that she would be able to understand why the clarinet played "breezy notes so darkly slick," or the oboe was "gleeful, bleating, sobbing, pleading through it's throbbing double-reeding" without being exposed to sound of the instruments. In other words, I didn't think my daughter would be able to understand what the words meant from the context of the book alone.So why five stars then?We started reading this book a month ago, and since then my daughter has been asking for it every day - sometimes five times a day.As other reviewers mentioned, this book is great for reinforcing counting. It is quite refreshing to be able to count musicians as they're added to the orchestra, instead of just counting sheep or dinosaurs. The illustrations are quite beautiful, and in addition my daughter now knows the names of all of the instruments in the book.I also dusted off our Mozart Magic Cube (used to be called Embryonics Music cube)- a "music block toy" that has sound samples of four of the instruments in this book - the flute, harp, french horn, and violin. Whenever we read this book, my daughter finds the appropriate instrument for the appropriate verse. At the end, my daughter and I "clap loudly and shout 'Encore,'" and we play the entire orchestra on Mozart Magic cube again.And that, as the book says, "is a great delight." I have fun reading this book to her, even when I read it over and over again.

When my son was a baby, I found this book for a few dollars, obviously unread, at a local used goods store. I'm wary of books from there that appear unread, but on first glance through it seemed to be a good book so I bought it. And am I glad I did! We give away copies of this as a gift to new families. Our kids both love it, and my husband and I are drawn to things that rhyme since they are more fun to read and flow so well. This book rhymes well but the story also has depth as it goes through and explains a multitude of instruments. I have a musical background and love that this instills in my kids a love of instruments too. They are curious and when we come across opportunities to explore instruments, they have a background knowledge from this book as to what the instruments are and what they do. It's awesome. We love the story!

My son was given a stack of truck books when he was about 2 and began learning the names of all kinds of obscure heavy machinery. I though, “that’s neat, but if he can learn that, he can also learn other things (more important to ME :).” So I decided to look for books about music. I bought "Zin Zin Zin a Violin!" and, sure enough, he soon began to recognize an oboe, harp, trombone, etc. He and we, his parents, loved it so much I looked for another Moss book and found the equally wonderful, "Our Marching Band.” As I wrote in my review of that book, it is primarily because of these two books that our son (who will be three next month) now recognizes all the major Western orchestral instruments, knows the difference between concert hall orchestras and marching bands, and is even aware of the difference between the type of batons used by a concert hall conductor and a marching band leader. The language is also fun and poetic with some lovely vocabulary and wonderful illustrations with diverse casts of characters. These books have truly influenced and become part of our life, and we're the happier for it!

My 19 month old daughter loves music and she is OBSESSED with this book! She could name all of the instruments after a day of reading this book dozens of times and loves asking us to pretend to "play" the instruments. The illustrations are great and she loves pointing out that the trombone player took his hat off in one of the pages, the french horn player intermittently "hides" his hand inside the horn, the animals are dancing, etc :) The rhyme is clever and catchy and I think something she will grow to appreciate when she is older with more attention span for actual reading! It's a great book for all ages, very educational and entertaining!

Love giving books away for people to enjoy.

A delightful and engaging story about musical instruments for children.

This is my absolute favorite music book! The rhyming is enjoyable to read, and the book teaches about the different instruments and some music terminology (duo, trio, etc). The artwork is beautiful too. A lovely read that teaches as well - can you ask for more??