The It Goes This Way songbook is a charming song and activity book that goes with Carol Nicodemi’s 2012 debut album by the same name. All twelve songs from the album are included and are transcribed “lead sheet style” with the melody, lyrics and chords for each song. Designed for very young children, the book also includes activity suggestions for each song and charming illustrations by Tommy Cha. Carol was an elementary school music teacher for twenty-five years, so she has a lot of great ideas and plenty of experience with working with children as well as fresh ideas to share in her books. (The songbook for her second album, Make a Happy Face, is also available and the songbook for her third album, Ride the Merry-Go-Round is in the works.) In addition to her songbooks and three albums, Carol has released a large number of singles both solo and with her composer/musician husband, Edmond Paul Nicodemi.

The “Introduction” pages of the book explain the inspiration for several of the songs. An example: “When children came up to me and said they had no idea what to write about, I created ‘Small Moments’ to help give them ideas.”

The activity suggestions for each song are varied and designed to encourage creativity as well as understanding. Two of the six suggestions for “Two Kids in the City” are “Encourage the children to discuss the diverse cultures present in our city.” and “Discuss what else we all have in common, and celebrate our differences.” For “Autumn,” it is suggested that the children pretend to be leaves and fall gracefully to the ground as they sing and move to the song.

Intended primarily for classrooms and libraries, the books are available from Amazon as e-books and paperbacks. The "It Goes This Way" books are also readily adaptable for home and child-care use. For some fun and charming “sing-alongs,” Carol’s three recordings are also available to stream and download from Amazon. Highly recommended!