Not only can you research almost any topic, find any kind of image, and order endless products, but did you know that you can also find almost ANY BOOK ONLINE?  You can find books that you didn’t even know existed as books.  That’s what happened to my friend Sara.  She found a special song that has been turned into a book.

Sara knows that I love the song, What a Wonderful World, by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss.  She does too, and she’s been singing it to her five grandchildren.   It’s one of my dad’s favorites too, as sung by Louis Armstrong, who’s also one of his favorite jazz artists.   When I was young, we actually named our family dog Satcha after Louis Armstrong, whose nickname was Satchmo (we had to change to “mo” to an “a” because she was female and my mom is Cuban; you get it).

Well, Sara was wondering if anyone had ever taken the lyrics to the song and created a picture book.  She explored online with just a Google search, and there it was, a beautiful picture book with the exact lyrics to What a Wonderful World.  A gentleman named Tim Hopgood compiled and illustrated the book; it is simply vibrant with color and creative with display.  

I adore this beautifully created book. It may be one of my standard gift books for new mothers from now on.  It contains that emotional link between music and words too. Here’s a little information from the back cover:

“What a Wonderful World was first recorded in 1967 by Louis Armstrong.  Today, with sales of over one million copies, this timeless song has become a poignant message of hope for people everywhere. 

TIM HOPGOOD was six years old when he first heard Louis Armstrong’s recording of What a Wonderful World.  Years later, his daughter found a recording of the song in a flea market and gave it to him as a present.  As soon as he heard Louis Armstrong’s gravelly voice sing the first few lines again, he knew he wanted to capture the joy of the song in a picture book (timhopgood.org)”.

When I checked out timhopgood.org, I found that he has an entire section of songbooks that he has created,  https://timhopgood.org/songbooks-1.  You may be familiar with some of the titles:  Moon River, Singing in the Rain, and Winter Wonderland.  Wow,I feel like this is hidden treasure.

How cool is it that a children’s book was created out of jazz music?   Sara pointed out that reading this book will inspire those that are not familiar with it to listen to the song!  They will be exposed to Louis Armstrong’s authentic, raspy voice and may become yet another fan.

So, if there’s a special song or poem or scripture that holds meaning to you, try searching for it online.   You never know, you may find it somewhere out there in the cloud, for yourself or for a gift.  You may be surprised like my friend Sara, who gifted me, “Bee Bee to Nana”.  What a wonderful World was just a wonderful gift.

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