The Golden Thread: A Song for Pete Seeger

With dazzling, lyrical verse in the folk revival style and stunning cut-paper illustrations, Colin Meloy and Nikki McClure pay tribute to Pete Seeger, a visionary who changed the world with song. This nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice to share during homeschooling, in particular for children ages 4 to 6. It’s a fun way to learn to read and as a supplement for activity books for children.

Pete Seeger once sang that if he had a golden thread, he would use it to weave people from all over the world to one another. That golden thread, for Pete, was music.

Born into a family of traveling musicians, Pete picked up his first instrument at age seven. From then on, music was his life, whether he was playing banjo for soldiers during World War II, rallying civil rights activists and war protesters with songs such as “We Shall Overcome,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” and “If I Had a Hammer,” or leading environmental efforts to clean up the Hudson River.

For decades, Pete Seeger’s messages of universal understanding and social and environmental justice inspired generations—and have left a lasting legacy.

Colin Meloy is the author of The Stars Did Wander Darkling, The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid, and the New York Times bestselling Wildwood Chronicles as well as two picture books, The Golden Thread: A Song for Pete Seeger and Everyone’s Awake. He is also the singer and songwriter for the indie rock band the Decemberists. Colin lives in Oregon with his wife and frequent collaborator, illustrator Carson Ellis, and their sons.

Nikki McClure is an artist and writer who lives with her family in Olympia, Washington. She is the author-illustrator of a number of acclaimed picture books, including Waiting for High Tide, In, Collect Raindrops, and The Great Chicken Escape, and she is the illustrator of All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant, May the Stars Drip Down by Jeremy Chatelain, and The Golden Thread by Colin Meloy.