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Going Public: Southeast Alumna And Former Professor Publishes Children Book As Music Resource

Carol McDowell

A Southeast alumna and former professor of music education at the university has written a book to engage children in music.

Dr. Carol McDowell has written before, about her home city of Jackson and its band. 

Now she’s taking an opportunity to educate kids in an interactive book called “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Drum.” 

“I think children’s literature is a wonderful resource for music educators,” McDowell said. 

Inspired by other books that focused on the variety of books centered on old ladies swallowing “everything from a bat for Halloween to a pie for Thanksgiving and a chick for Easter.” McDowell decided this would be an opportunity to use that theme to teach music, with the old lady swallowing musical instruments from the classroom and teaching about the country-of-origin of many of the instruments.  

“[Children’s books] can teach form,” McDowell said. ”They can teach repetition. You’re teaching the same reading skills as you would teach a child to learn language.”

McDowell says the book was illustrated by her longtime friend, Saundra Flanagan. She has more ideas for books in the future teaching staff notation, she says, and she hopes Flanagan will provide illustration for the next book. McDowell says she has begun using the book in her own classroom. “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Drum” is available on Amazon.