We've been fans of Loog Guitars here at Zooglobble HQ from the beginning. I interviewed Rafael Atijas, the founder of the company, in 2011 as he was in the midst of his first (eventually successful) Kickstarter to manufacture his very first set of acoustic 3-string guitars. I dug that first guitar, and so in 2013 when Atijas had his second Kickstarter to manufacture his first set of electric (again, 3-string) guitars, I interviewed him once more. That project succeeded, too -- raising $70,000, just a bit more than his first go-round.
And really, if you can do an acoustic and an electric guitar well, why bother creating something new? Which is why you shouldn't listen to me for business advice, because something happened with his third Kickstarter. As successful as his first two were, that didn't come close to this one, as he raised almost $360,000 to manufacture 3 new guitars: the Loog Pro Acoustic and Loog Pro Electric, along with a new Loog Mini.
While the Loog Pro models looked nice, I basically already had those two guitars, albeit earlier versions of them. (Also, I'm not really a guitar player, so the Loog Pro would be wasted on me.) But the Loog Mini -- a 3-string guitar the basic size of a soprano ukulele -- that was definitely the most intriguing one to me. So I plunked down my $59 (they're $79 post-Kickstarter) and earlier this year it arrived at the home.
A while back the Official Wife of Zooglobble brought this book home from her preschool classroom. It's called What Instrument Is This?, and as you might deduce from the title, its structure is a series of questions encouraging the elementary-school-aged reader to guess the name of an instrument.
Now, given that the book is 20 years old, and some of the pictures inside appear to be at least twice that, one could be forgiven for dismissing the book. But it's a totally charming book, probably the best "introduction to instruments" book I've ever seen.
Author Rosemarie Hausherr organizes the instruments by instrument group (winds, strings, keyboard, and percussion), and features many different types of pictures and settings. There's just enough detail to make it interesting without overwhelming -- the recorder is a long, hollow piece of wood with eight holes, played by blowing into the whistle mouthpiece, with a "warm and cheerful sound."
While the text style and the design of the book remain remarkably consistent throughout (and the subtle logos representing each of the four instrument groups would look modern today), that's offset by the diversity of musical and photographic styles and subjects. Classical music, sure, but bagpipes? CBGB (yes, that CBGB) is thanked in the credits, so I can only assume the picture for the electric guitar (strings section) is from a gig there. The kids in the pictures reflect a fairly diverse crowd, spanning many races and featuring more than one child with disabilities playing (or experimenting with) instruments. It's nothing fancy, but it's great at keeping kids interested without trying too hard to do so.
The book appears to be long out of print, but Amazon has 
5) Large, expensive instruments: Pianos are great, but even the cheapest piano on Craigslist will spend your entire budget. Full-sized guitars or 
