Westfield Music Teacher Publishes Book To Teach Kids Concert Etiquette

WESTFIELD, NJ — Inspired by a field trip her students were taking, Westfield Music Teacher Christina Toulios self-published a children's book titled "Taki's First Concert" to teach young children about concert etiquette.

Toulios began writing the story in the fall when she found out her students were attending the high school's performance of "The Wild Symphony."

"I just really did this for my students to prepare them, but it was so crazy to read them the story and watch them engaged," said Toulios to Patch, who has been teaching music for 14 years to preschoolers and kindergarteners at Lincoln Early Childhood and McKinley Elementary Schools.

She completed her story and published the book in January just in time for the concert.

The story follows a little boy named Taki who goes to his first concert with his Yaya, which is grandma in Greek. Taki brings his candy bar, his iPad, and his camera. When he gets to the concert he finds out he can't eat there, he can't take pictures, he can't play games on his iPad.

Toulios wanted her story to be an open conversation with her students and young readers of the book.

"When I was reading it to my students I was asking them, 'Do you think he should be playing a game on his iPad?' And they're like, No," said Toulios. "I wrote the book to really show what it means to be a good audience member, even from a super young age, and then understanding and talking about, 'Oh yeah, that wouldn't be nice if you were kicking somebody's chair and you were bothering them the whole time'."

Toulios noted that most young children may have never been to a concert or if they have gone out it has been to a movie theater where the experience is very different. Toulios wanted to share her story in a way for young children to understand why certain etiquette is needed.

"My whole purpose for the book is to show that having these rules in a theater is not just to take the fun away from your experience, but it's to show respect to everybody around you. Show respect to the musicians who are on stage who worked really hard and be an all-around good human," said Toulios.

Toulios' book is not only special as being her first written but the characters are based on her own family.

"The little boy Taki, he is based off my little brother. Growing up, he was an adorable little blondie child. And my Yaya, she just was a very sweet, wonderful woman," said Toulios. "I based the two characters off of them. And even the sketches, like on the first page, there's a picture of my little brother and that's what I used to give the illustrator since I wanted it to be authentic to me."

Looking forward, Toulios said she is open to future writing opportunities.

"I've known that I've wanted to be a teacher since I was five years old. Teaching is my ultimate passion, but this has been super exciting and fun and I could see possibly doing something in the future from the opposite perspective of instead of Taki being in the audience, maybe Taki is on stage," said Toulios. "It's just all very new and exciting. So I'm open to anything going forward."

For more information on Toulios' book "Taki's First Concert" or to purchase it visit amazon.com/Takis-First-Concert-Christina-Toulios.

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