This book is a designed to keep your little one engaged, calm, and learning before bedtime. It is meant to be read and viewed while listening to the accompanying CD, exposing your child to new sounds and cultures. Each page displays a picture version of the song's primary message, through slightly abstract images with many angles and beautiful contrasting colors in high gloss. The abstract quality of the pictures encourages imagination from readers. The pages are filled to the edges with color and shapes, providing plenty for your child to explore and interpret while listening to the song. The country of origin for the songs is stated on each page, and the title is interpreted in three languages; English, Spanish, and French.

Hearing you pronounce the different languages, as well as hearing the language sung on the CD, is a wonderful introduction for your little one to cultures other than their own. They may inquire about the written languages that look so different that the one they are learning, or they may point to images on the page and wonder what they are. You can provoke your child to think more about each page by explaining what you can (the origin of the song and title) and interpreting the pictures as best you can, offering your own thoughts and asking about theirs. Listening to the music concurrently with reading is the best way to help your child understand the mood and meaning of each song.

I read this book and listened to the CD with my two-year-old friend, Kyle, about half an hour before his nap time. He had been playing hard all afternoon, and needed to calm down enough to nap. He snuggled up on my lap and we started the CD, turning the pages with each song. He seemed to lose himself if the pictures while bopping his head to the beat, until he finally drifted off to sleep.

--Audra

This music is great for snuggle time, as it will calm your little one and expose them to new sounds from instruments, voices, and cultures. You will hear songs from Haiti, Spain, Senegal, the United Kingdom, China, Egypt, Cuba, the U.S., Italy, Canada, Niger, and Mexico. Each song states the country or origin of the lullaby. Even one of the few songs with English lyrics, All The Pretty Horses features the sitar, an instrument that is likely a new sound to your child. The Spanish lullaby, Arruru mi nina soothes with simple humming in the middle. Nadiara features the cora, which looks like a cousin to the guitar, and sounds similar to a harp. The Chinese song, Close Your Eyes is mostly instrumental, displaying the sounds of the zheng (a plucked string instrument) and the pan flute. There are many more new and interesting sounds for you to and your little one to listen for, point out to one another, and discuss.