The Make a Happy Face song and activity book is the charming companion for Carol Nicodemi’s 2021 album by the same name. The songbooks were designed for working with young children, and Carol was an elementary school music teacher for twenty-five years so she has had plenty of experience! Carol has also recorded several albums (Make a Happy Face was her second) and quite a number of singles both solo and with her composer and musician husband, Edmond Paul Nicodemi.

What makes this book different from most of the songbooks I review is that instead of the music being arranged for solo piano, the songs in this book were transcribed “lead-sheet style” with the melody, lyrics and chords for each of the eight original songs. In addition, each song has cute illustrations by Tommy Cha and detailed activity instructions to go with the music. Intended primarily for classrooms and libraries, the books are available from Amazon as e-books and paperbacks. The books are also readily adaptable for home and child-care use. The recordings are available to stream and download for some fun and charming “sing-alongs”!

Quoting the author/composer: “My intent is to get the books purchased by schools, libraries etc. to promote quality music in the classroom and at home.” Bravo for that!!!

To share a few examples of the suggested activities, a couple of the six suggestions for the song titled “Dance All Over the Map” are “Share with the children that sometimes it’s hard to sit in one place and just listen. Even some grown-ups have trouble doing that.” and “Use a globe or a smart board to show all the places you can dance to.” For “It’s Okay To Make Mistakes,” two of the four suggestions are “Ask the class, ‘Who knows what a mistake is?’ Help explain.” and “Explain that it’s OK to make mistakes. Everybody does it. Grown-ups, too. That’s how we learn. Now sing the song.” Supportive, encouraging and fun - what could be better?