Best Putumayo

ongside Dreamland: World Lullabies and Soothing Sounds and Asian Dreamland.

With Putumayo will bring the whole family together.Putumayo invites children to join in the musical adventures at www.putumayokids.com. They can view the “Sing Along” song lyrics, download song chords and colorful screen savers and learn fun facts about different cultures around the world.Putumayo Kids is committed to high quality, fun and culturally authentic globetrotting resources and its CDs and cultural activity kits have won top awards from the American Library Association, Parents’ Choice, the National Parenting Publications, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, DiscoverySchool.com and “Best of” from Scholastic publications. Recent releases include the Latin Playground Bilingual Activity Kit, African Playground and Dreamland: World Lullabies and Soothing Songs.Awards: 2005 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award2004 NAPPA Honors Award2004 Parents’ Choice Silver Award

s collected 13 child-friendly songs from many of Brazil’s most talented musicians. Featured artists include Teresa Cristina, a leading samba singer, and Brazilian Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil, renowned the world over as a true musical pioneer who led the Tropicália movement of the 1960s.The ninth CD in its educational Playground series, Brazilian Playground helps children learn about one of the world’s most fascinating cultures. It features multilingual liner notes in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese, full color photos, a map of Brazil and a glossary of musical terms. Along with this release, the Putumayo Kids website will offer a free, downloadable 2-page Brazilian Playground learning guide for teachers and parents to use in conjunction with the CD.  

are easy to sing and dance along to, no matter what language you speak.The song themes speak to children’s interests and spark their imaginations. The Swiss tune by Roland Zoss is about a magical land where teddy bears come to life. Sås & Kopp sing in Swedish about jumping on a trampoline with friends in the backyard, and German favorite Alex Schmeisser celebrates the friendship between a big cow and a little mouse. Alain Le Lait highlights the French love of good food while London-based Herbie Treehead explores a universal theme in a fresh new way with his “Change Song,” noting, “We all have to change sometimes!”As with all Putumayo Kids releases, European Playground showcases the ways in which musical styles become global phenomena. The universal appeal of Caribbean musical styles is evident in tunes from artists working in the Netherlands, Greece and Denmark. Similarly, the mutual influence that Scottish and Irish music and North American folk music share can be heard in songs by Scotland’s Ian Benzie and Ireland’s Sharon Shannon.  

acks on the album will guide listeners on a journey that begins in North America and ends in Africa without skipping a beat in between. Music fans of all ages will want to jump, hop and sing along to the playful, upbeat melodies of Animal Playground.

The CD is a great resource for language and social studies teachers.The artists on French Playground include some of the most popular children’s performers in their respective countries, along with successful pop artists such as Pascal Parisot, Thomas Fersen, Tryo and Ariane Moffat whose songs were selected for their all-ages appeal. Musical styles range from French chanson and Gypsy jazz to the twoubadou music of Haiti and the rootsbending style of Triton, who is from Mauritius, an island off the east coast of Africa.Gallic joie de vivre is expressed in each of the tunes, from the opening song’s invitation to “tickle the sun” with a ladybug (Chatouiller le Ciel avec Toi), to songs that celebrate the beauty of the South of France (Clic-Clac Oh C’est Beau!). Some of the tracks provide tasty little slices of French life, including "Bonjour, Bonjour," which tells of a little bus’s journey past boulangeries and other neighborhood spots. Children will also enjoy a young man’s memories of staying with his grandparents (Petit Francais).