Tender, subtle and irresistibly illustrations and simple songs with with charming lyrics will delight your child in this storybook and CD combination. Gilles Vigneault's wandering mind carries us far away into an imaginative world full of poetry. J'ai pour toi un lac and Les amours, les travaux, two "adult" classics he penned many years ago, fit perfectly alongside lullabies and nursery rhymes.

This storybook and CD combination offers beautifully illustrated pictures and 13 totally unique songs. The Pot is a cartoon and rap with silly lyrics about crazy ingredients added to a stew which ends up making everyone sick; there were lemon drops, cat whiskers, boots, and a hat thrown in!  Apple Song is a mixed media presentation, beginning with a cartoon boy with real popcorn for hair, sleeping on a pillow of cotton balls. The song features the piano and flute and repeats the music and visuals. The upbeat and catchy tune, The Man From Leeds is clay animation, while Julies Lullaby is a mixture of clay animation and still cartoon backgrounds. Love and Work features a child singer eventually joined by adults singing. The pictures in Love and Work look like children's drawings and seem to be almost blinking, or pulsing, to the guitar and flute melody. The Lamppost is another mixed media segment about a little girl who decided to plant lightbulbs in hoping that luminous flowers would grow. Nothing grew, and it was 15 years before the girl returned to the location that she'd planted the lightbulbs. In the very spot she remembered planting a bulb, she now found...a lamppost!

In addition to the fun illustrations, the different stoires offer some excellent lessons and opportunities to interact or participate. For example, in On the Tip of My Tongue the main character (a cartoon man with a very silly voice and interesting attire) repeats a verse, adding to it each time. This repetition helps your child learn quickly and be able to join in. Children's voices are also heard singing the chorus of this segment, "If you had it thennnnnn, you will find the word again." Your child can add his or her voice right in. In the segment Teddy a young girl asks her daddy to build a little house, a boat, and a spaceship for her teddy bear. Her dad agrees to help, explaining that all they need is some cardboard, scissors, glue, pencils, erasers, and paper...and some milk and cookies, of course. Throughout the song, her father repeats the advice, "Sketch a plan and think it through, you know what to do."By the end of the song, the little girl is able to build something for her teddy bear all on her own. Your child might display this type of creativity as well in their next craft time with you. Expect to see your child singing or humming along with the song, dancing with the characters in Sleep Sheep Hoedown for the Kid Who Won't Lie Down, commenting on the clay animation and silly looking characters, and skipping to their favorite stories. With this much variety, any child will be able to find a favorite.

I read this book and listened to the CD with my four-year-old niece, Emily. Hands down, her favorite story was Scuttlebutt, What a Nut. The title alone had her giggling up a storm, but she also loved the clay animated blue cat, a.k.a. Scuttlebutt. She listened to the music a few times in a row, and was quickly singing and dancing along to, "This is Mr. Look-at-that, he says he's an acrobat, and thinks that he is full of grace, 'till he falls flat on his face. Scuttlebut, what a nut!"

--Audra

Gilles Vigneault, a member of the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, is hailed as one of Canada's most important music figures of the twentieth century, especially as a champion Quebecois folksinger. His work often evokes his great love of nature and the passion he has for his hometown - Natashquan, a remote, wind-swept village on the banks of the St. Lawrence. He has received numerous distinctions including the "Grand prix du disque de l'Academie Charles-Cros" in France and the "Medaille Vermeil" offered by the City of Paris