2010 Holiday Guide: Gifts of Music part three

Today we conclude this eight-part series that began in early November, and provided introductions as well as best-buy pricing options on various entertainment categories.

In today's entry, we finish as we started - with music, as it is one of the most popular categories, and is  perfect for affordable holiday gift giving.

Below you will find a broad range of artists that focused their talents on bringing recordings to the marketplace for children..

These products have been researched for quality as well as value, and are geared to provide multiple age ranges with many hours of positive and fun-filled entertainment.

Best pricing options available at the time of this posting are provided below, but it is suggested that (when available) you cross-compare with your favorite online as well as stick and brick retailers.

You may wish to bookmark this page to enable further explorations of the highlighted links at your leisure, as there are numerous choices covering a variety of musical tastes.

In case you missed earlier installments of this series, links to those editions are provided at the end of this article.

As always, you are the best judge of what is appropriate for your child’s entertainment.

Justin Roberts: Jungle Gym



The New York Times referred to Justin Roberts as, "The Judy Blume of kiddie rock," and Time magazine declared him, "A brilliant crafter of power pop tunes.” Those accolades are the real deal on this 2011 Grammy nominated children’s album, Jungle Gym.

Roberts truly captures the essence of childhood with his meaningful lyrics, and finely crafted melodies, all wrapped in excellent production values.

Best pricing for the CD is through Amazon Marketplace for $8.69.

Sound samples for the entire album and MP3 download are available with best price through Amazon.com for $5.00, or $0.99 per individual track.

Sunny Day Elizabeth Mitchell

From Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, the gentle voice of family-favorite, Elizabeth Mitchell, is joined by her husband Daniel Littleton, their daughter Storey, Dan Zanes, Jon Langford, drummer Levon Helm, and the Children of Agape Choir.

The songs are a pleasant compilation with some unique selections, which include roots in Celtic, reggae, Japanese and Korean music.

The addition of children’s voices encourages youngsters to sing along.

Best Price for Sunny Day CD is $7.64 through Amazon Marketplace where sound samples are available for all 19 tracks.

An MP3 download is also available direct through Amazon.com for $8.99 and includes 20 tracks.



Randy Kaplan’s The Kids Are All Id

The Kids Are All Id is a wonderful album that features American roots music, blues and seamless storytelling from Randy Kaplan, a master entertainer.

The album has won several honors since its release and includes prestigious nods from NAPPA as a Gold Award-winner, and voted a Top Five CD in the NICKELODEON Parents' Picks Awards.

Best pricing for The Kids Are All Id CD is through Amazon Marketplace for $8.29.

All 17 sound samples and a best-price MP3 album download are available through Amazon.com for $8.99, or individual tracks at $0.99 each.

What Are the Odds?

 New York City musician/educator Meredith LeVande is continuing in the previous vein of her highly successful first release, Monkey Monkey Music, and in this newest outing brings joyful songs geared perfectly for the youngest set age two to five.

This fun-loving preschool pop album is available in three formats: CD, MP3 download and in a newly released charming optional DVD or VHS video that recently received 2010 honors from NAPPA.

Sound samples for all 16 tracks are available with best pricing through Amazon.com for the entire MP3 album download at $8.99, or individual tracks at $0.99 each.

The complete CD can be purchased with best pricing through Amazon Marketplace for $9.98.

You can preview the video through Levande’s website where it is also available to purchase for $19.99 plus shipping and handling.

Green Golly and Her Golden Flute by Flute Sweet and Tickletoon

Barbara Siesel and Keith Torgan are “Flute Sweet and Tickletoon,” and together they present a delightful mix of storytelling, comedy and classical music.

Based on the traditional fairytale, Rapunzel, this retelling now has the central character known as “Green Golly.”

The album introduces children ages five through 10 to some of the greatest composers in history and includes works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Chopin, Schubert, Bizet, Elgar, Gossec, and Copland

Best pricing for the CD is through Amazon Marketplace for $7.80.

Sound samples for the entire album and MP3 download are available at best price through Amazon.com for $8.99, or $0.99 per individual track.

Dream Jam Band: Leave it in the Soup

“Leave it in the Soup” featuring the Dream Jam Band is an energizing mix of rock, pop, hip-hop and blues with hints to Mozart, a bit of Beatles, and a nod to Arlo Guthrie and Duke Ellington.

Best pricing for the CD is through Amazon Marketplace for $6.34.

Sound samples for the entire 11 tracks album and MP3 download are available with best price through Amazon.com for $7.99, or $0.99 per individual track.

Time Out to Rock featuring The Not-Its!

Dubbed as Seattle’s "best-dressed" kid’s rockers, The Not-Its will leave no couch potatoes behind on this their second album release, “Time Out to Rock.”

Fun lyrics, with danceable music, equal a totally kid-rockin’ experience. The final tune, “Hollow Tree” will gently bring children back to home.


Amazon Marketplace has the CD at the best price of $7.98.

All 11 tracks are available to sound sample and download in MP3 format through Amazon.com with the best price of $8.99 for the entire album, or $0.99 per track.

Starfish: Enter Sandbox

For families that love to rock, this entry on the kid’s music scene provides plenty of entertainment for the whole family in this genre.

These New Jersey based children’s entertainers known as “Starfish,” are comprised of rock scene veterans who brings bring plenty of moxie to the table on their album, “Enter the Sandbox.”

Band members, StingRay (who covers lead vocals/ guitar) Grateful Dave (Dave Hartkern drums/vocals) along with Moose (better known as Marc Stern lead guitar ) plus Dr. Yes (Mark Asch keyboards and vocals) and Ant Farm (Antar Goodwin bass guitar) are not only seasoned pros, but fathers spreading the rock genre to the next generation.

Enter Sandbox is Starfish’s second album and shows recognizable influences of Cream, Deep Purple and Beatles.

Best price on Starfish’s newest CD is available from Amazon Marketplace for $2.50.

MP3 downloads and all sound samples are available direct from Amazon.com at $9.49 for the entire 12-track album, or $0.99 per track.

Earlier editions of the 2010 Gift Guide are available by clicking on the following links:

2010 Holiday Guide: Gifts of Music

2010 Holiday Guide: DVDs and videos

Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Wizard of Oz theme oriented gifts

2010 Holiday Guide: Gifts of Music part two

Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Hanukkah Gifts

2010 Holiday Guide: Best books of the year

2010 Holiday Guide: Story apps for e-readers, iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch

2010 Holiday Guide: Best books of the year

This is the seventh installment of this series that provides numerous entertainment options for holiday gift giving for children and teens, and today we turn our attention to the best books released this year.

The products, which appear, below have been researched for quality as well as value, and are geared to provide hours of positive and fun-filled entertainment.

Best pricing options, at the time of this posting are provided below, but it is suggested that you cross-compare, when available book prices and editions with your favorite online as well as stick and brick retailers, as pricing may fluctuate on a daily basis.

If you happened to have missed earlier posts, links are provided at the end of this article.

Also, you may wish to bookmark this page, as the links include reviews or author videos that enable further in-depth exploration at your leisure.

As always, you are the best judge of what is appropriate for your child’s entertainment.

When You Reach Me is written by Rebecca Stead and published by Wendy Lamb Books (an imprint of Random House Children's Books.)

Designated this year’s winner of the John Newbery Medal, for the “most outstanding contribution to children's literature,”  When You Reach Me will not disappoint, it is beautifully written and suspenseful.

“ From School Library Journal Starred Review. Grade 5-8–Sixth-grader Miranda lives in 1978 New York City with her mother, and her life compass is Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. When she receives a series of enigmatic notes that claim to want to save her life, she comes to believe that they are from someone who knows the future.”

Explore a video interview with Rebecca Stead at Amazon.com, which includes additional storyline and background information.

Best pricing for the hardcover edition is through Amazon Marketplace for $5.15.  Best pricing for soon-to-be-released (12/28/10) paperback edition is available for pre-order through Barnes and Noble for $6.29.

The Lion & the Mouse illustrated and written by Jerry Pinkney, publisher Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers is the 2010 winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal for the “most distinguished American picture book for children.” 

The book is a retelling of the classic Aesop’s Fable and is an incredible visual feast that will enthrall youngsters.


“From School Library Journal Starred Review. Preschool-Grade 3—This story starts on the cover with the glorious, golden countenance of a lion. No text is necessary to communicate the title: the direction of the beast's gaze and the conflicted expression on his tightly cropped face compel readers to turn the book over, where a mouse, almost filling the vertical space, glances back. The endpapers and artist's note place these creatures among the animal families of the African Serengeti. Each spread contributes something new in this nearly wordless narrative, including the title opening. “

Connect to a video with author/illustrator Jerry Pinkney, and more visuals of this amazing picture book by following this link.

More detailed customer reviews for The Lion & the Mouse are available through Amazon.com.

Best price for this hardbound edition is through Amazon Marketplace for $8.95.

Going Bovine is written by Libba Bray, publisher Delacorte Press (an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House.)

Going Bovine was honored with the 2010 Michael L. Printz Award for “excellence in literature written for young adults.”

This may be viewed as a controversial book choice, but it is a touching, witty, gritty and a very sobering read.

Going Bovine is recommended for older teens, as it leaves its marks about life’s priorities. Some parents may wish to extensively check reviews as to the appropriateness of their child’s ability to comprehend the book’s message. It is long but well written, and includes some profanity and mature content.  However, it definitely provides room for parent-teen conversations.

“From School Library Journal Grade 8 Up—In this ambitious novel, Cameron, a 16-year-old slacker whose somewhat dysfunctional family has just about given up on him, as perhaps he himself has, when his diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jacob, "mad cow" disease, reunites them, if too late. The heart of the story, though, is a hallucinatory—or is it?—quest with many parallels to the hopeless but inspirational efforts of Don Quixote, about whom Cameron had been reading before his illness.”

Read reviews, both pro and con at Amazon.com, and best price is the paperback edition at $5.70 through Amazon Marketplace.

My People illustrated by Charles R. Smith Jr., written by Langston Hughes and published by Ginee Seo Books, Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

This Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award-winner is an exquisite marriage of poetry and photography.

“From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. At just thirty-three words total, [this] poem is a study in its visual simplicity. This picture-book presentation is a tour de force. Introducing the poem two or three words at a time, Smith pairs each phrase with a portrait of one or more African-Americans; printed in sepia, the faces of his subjects materialize on black pages. The night, reads the opening spread, across from an image of a mans face, his eyes shut; is beautiful, continues the next spread, showing the same face, now with eyes open and a wide smile. The text, sized big to balance the portraits, shows up in hues that range from white to tan to brown-black, reflecting Smiths reading that the words celebrate black people of differing shades and ages.”

To find out more about My People, visit Amazon.com, and where best pricing is available through the Amazon Marketplace at $6.48 for the hardcover edition.

Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, and published by Carolrhoda Books (a division of Lerner Publishing Group, Inc.)

This year, the Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award, which recognizes “an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults”, was awarded to Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal.

A superb read geared for middle school children, which features a true-life hero, Bass Reeves, the first African-American deputy U.S. marshal who brought law and order to the old west.

Bad News for Outlaws was also designated with the honor of being an “Amazon Best Books of the Month” selection.

This edition of Bad News comes in a Library Binding and is available with best pricing through Amazon Marketplace for $10.98.

A Faraway Island is the 2010 winner of the Mildred L. Batchelder Award for “an outstanding children's book translated from a foreign language and subsequently published in the United States.”

Originally published in Swedish in 1996 as "En o i havet," the book was written by Annika Thor, translated by Linda Schenck, and published by Delacorte Press (an imprint of Random House Children's Books.)

A poignant and riveting novel that takes a different look at the Holocaust, as two Austrian sisters are separated from their family, and evacuated to an island off the coast of Sweden. Each girl placed with a different foster family.


"From School Library Journal Grade 5–8— In this gripping story, Stephie and Nellie, two Austrian Jewish sisters, are evacuated in 1938 from Vienna to a Swedish island and placed in separate foster homes. Twelve-year-old Stephie has promised her parents that she will try to ease her younger sister's way, a burdensome promise to keep. Auntie Alma, Nellie's Swedish mother, is warmer and more welcoming than Auntie Märta, Stephie's more austere foster parent. “

Reviews for A Faraway Island are available at Amazon.com, and best pricing for this hardbound edition is through Amazon Marketplace at $3.58.

To view other installments of the Holiday Gift Guide 2010, please click on the following:

2010 Holiday Guide: Gifts of Music

2010 Holiday Guide: DVDs and videos 

Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Wizard of Oz theme oriented gifts 

2010 Holiday Guide: Gifts of Music part two

 Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Hanukkah Gifts

2010 Holiday Guide: DVDs for preschoolers