Kids’ music takes up an ever-growing chunk of my family life – enough that sometimes I feel compelled to tell friends and others that our kids spend a lot of time doing things other than listening to music and responding to my incessant questions about whether they like a particular album.
Fear not: the Childs children are not destined to be illiterate record store clerks. (My 7-year-old, Ella, was recently witnessed reading while roller skating. She will, no doubt, be a highly literate record store clerk.) We read a lot, and we’ve found some terrific book/music combinations. Here are a few of our picks:
ScribbleMonster/ScribbleBooks (ScribbleMonster.com):ScribbleMonster (the band) is headed by James Dague (aka ScribbleJim), a Chicago-scene veteran who also plays in a grown-up band called The Shysters. Together with an outstanding rhythm section and two other vocalists (plus some character voices), ScribbleMonster plays melodic poppy rock that would fit just fine on alt-rock radio, if only alt-rock radio played songs about monsters going “Rrraargh!” and imaginary friends. ScribbleMonster’s most recent album, Chocolate Milk, is a wholly satisfying rock and roll experience. Culturally speaking, the title track fills a gaping hole: it’s the first drinking song for children.
Dague and his wife Paige (parents of three) also have a series of ScribbleBooks, featuring ScribbleMonster (the character). The books combine straightforward stories with elements of coloring books. The books’ messages are positive without being overbearing; ScribbleMonster and the Broken TV, for example, helps communicate all the fun that can be had without watching TV, but never veers into If-your-parents-allow-you-to-watch-even-a-minute-of-TV,-they-are-evil-people-who-don’t-care-about-you-and-you’re-going-to-end-up-living-in-an-ogre’s-cave territory.
Danny Adlerman (DannyandKim.com): Danny Adlerman is the first to admit that he’s not an amazing technical musician. But he’s really good at putting together clever, catchy songs and recruiting skilled musicians to help him out, including fellow New Jerseyite Jim Babjak, formerly of The Smithereens, who provides an authentic rock edge on Danny’s debut CD, One Size Fits All. The CD bears repeated listening well, with its combination of original songs and rock reworkings of classic children’s numbers. Easily the best song is the lead-off track, “Africa Calling,” which made it into (surprise!) a book.
Danny and his wife Kim, a children’s book illustrator, have published a number of books (both under their names and the pen name “Kin Eagle”). Most recently, they’ve started to release books tied into songs, including the beautifully illustrated Africa Calling and How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck? The latter includes more than a dozen artists’ illustrations and comes with a CD, which includes some witty variations on the classic rhyme (my favorite: “How much chi could a cheetah tie if a cheetah could tai chi?”).
Kevin Kammeraad (TomatoCollection.com): Kevin Kammeraad is mostly a poet, and several years ago, he published The Tomato Collection, a quirky and accessible collection that both kids and parents can enjoy. He then invited approximately a kajillion musicians to make a song out of every single one of the book’s 64 pages (excluding the copyright page and the ISBN code), and The Tomato Collection CD was born. He’s done the same thing for his most recent book, A Curious Glimpse of Michigan, which features both ScribbleMonster and Danny Adlerman.
Other cool book/music combinations: They don’t need more plugs from me, but Dan Zanes (FestivalFive.com) has an utterly charming book in Hello Hello and They Might Be Giants (GiantKid.net) has a very TMBG-ish book called Bed, Bed, Bed.
Bill Childs is a law professor in western Massachusetts. He and his 7-year-old daughter produce a kids’ music radio show, “Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child,” weekly; check it out at SpareTheRock.com. Contact him at show@sparetherock.com.
