The life of the travelling musician hasn't changed much over the millennia. For a prehistoric harper, a medieval fiddler or a modern guitar player, the experience is pretty much the same: there are times when everything goes well and others when nothing does. But it's not just performing that can go wrong – listening can also be dangerous! Can you stop dancing when you get tired or must you keep going until the music stops ... if it ever does? What happens if it carries on past midnight? What if it turns you to stone? Pete Castle has selected a variety of traditional tales from all over the UK (and a few from further afield) to enthral you, whether you are a musician, a dancer, or a reader who likes to keep dangerous things like singing and dancing at arm's length.

Includes twenty folktales that encourage audience participation.

Full of lively stories, jokes, and games for performance, the book also includes 40 songs with melody and guitar chords. Written by outstanding practicing folk performer. Includes 44 illustrations.

Winner of the Pura Belpré Illustrator Award A Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Book In soaring words and stunning illustrations, Margarita Engle and Rafael López tell the story of Teresa Carreño, a child prodigy who played piano for Abraham Lincoln. As a little girl, Teresa Carreño loved to let her hands dance across the beautiful keys of the piano. If she felt sad, music cheered her up, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share that joy. Soon she was writing her own songs and performing in grand cathedrals. Then a revolution in Venezuela forced her family to flee to the United States. Teresa felt lonely in this unfamiliar place, where few of the people she met spoke Spanish. Worst of all, there was fighting in her new home, too—the Civil War. Still, Teresa kept playing, and soon she grew famous as the talented Piano Girl who could play anything from a folk song to a sonata. So famous, in fact, that President Abraham Lincoln wanted her to play at the White House! Yet with the country torn apart by war, could Teresa’s music bring comfort to those who needed it most?