Night Night Baby Bundt: A Recipe for Bedtime and Splish Splash, Baby Bundt: A Recipe for Bathtime are attractively-illustrated board books by Jamie Harper that mine a recipe-style format for laughs and great story structure. I evaluated them myself before I showed them to Z. Sweet, intelligent and amusing was my assessment. Then came the true critic: the four-year-old. Z is in that place age-wise - no longer a toddler, not yet a big kid - where it is sometimes hard to figure what will appeal to her. However, both Baby Bundt books hit the spot!

Z loves to cook, and and her parents love to make lists, and these activities gave Z a great introduction to the "recipe method" of bath time and nighttime rituals. To get a squeaky clean baby you have to assemble the ingredients before you can begin the bath. First ingredient is one sticky (adorable) Baby Bundt. A fun and patient big sister shows the steps to cleaning baby one page at a time. One sticky baby bundt is mixed with lots of toys, soap, and more toys and more soap. Cute big sister helps with the washing (and the playing) until Baby Bundt is sparkling clean!

Bedtime rituals take own whole new levels of cuteness in the Night Night Baby Bundt book. A cup of kisses, a lost blanket, ten tasty toes, a bed lined with cuddly toys, and a sprinkling of pacifiers makes for a great nesting place for the tiny sleepy baby. Again, one very delightful big sister is instrumental in helping baby Bundt have a wonderful night’s sleep - a level of responsibility for a cuddly baby that is the stuff of fantasy for four-year-old girls.

Harper has published four Baby Bundt books so far, and thanks to her delightfully fresh illustrations, she could easily produce more without the format wearing thin. Recommended for kids ages two to six. - Karen

Translated from the Japanese for English-speaking audiences, Fumiko Takeshita's Hello Hello is a delightful and educational book for young children, thanks in part to Jun Takabatake's playful illustrations. Young readers will discover the history of communication tools and how the telephone can be used to remain in contact with friends and family who are very far away.

The book delves into the use of phones for a wide range of functions. A concept of telephone etiquette is subtly introduced, enough so that the parent can bring up things related to the timing of phone calls. Say, why would you call your friend at 2:00 in the morning? Oh might it wake her up? Could you call someone very late in an emergency? Why is it okay to call someone very late at night?

Children are interested in learning the hows and whys of a tool that plays such a significant role in their lives. They are also interested in the interweaving of the people in our complicated lives, and how the phone enables the child to know them. Z at four has been talking to my brother who lives on the West Coast since she turned two and could hold a cell phone in her hand. Much of the book resonates with her.

We recommend Hello Hello for kids ages 2 to 6 because the basic message relates to how and why you use a telephone, and what the technologies of communication have provided our world. For the somewhat older child a deeper meaning can be communicated which shows how a tool is used throughout the world (and beyond) to fulfill the basic human need to stay in contact with other people, and how the desires of these people are very similar. The book's amusing illustrations and simple text connote an underlying sweetness with a quirky edge that keeps things interesting for parents, too.

This book should also interest preschool and kindergarten teachers who need books to introduce specific topics to very young children. - Karen

Welcome to the 2008 Punnybop Holiday Gift Guide! Below, find gift recommendations that span the artistic output of creators of kids' media - wonderful books, CDs, videos, and games - as well as resources for kids to get creative themselves, with unusual instruments and tech gadgets to help them learn, create, and share.

music & merriment

Various, Let the Good Times Rouler: French/Quebecois party music for kids. Sweet! $15 | Buy here


Music Box Kit: Kids can punch out an original composition, or replicate their favorite video game theme in music-box form (ThinkGeek has instrux for producing the theme to Super Mario Brothers.) $5 | Buy here


Belkin RockStar: A six-way splitter for audio, the RockStar's six jacks also function as either input or output jacks, meaning that not only can you share audio with up to six listeners on headphones, you can mix multiple audio sources. It's a great tool for helping kids share a portable DVD player on a trip, and an even better one for older children to engage with music socially with friends. $14 | Buy here


Sesame Street Playground from Putumayo Kids: Each of the 13 songs is produced in its country of origin, from Brazil and France to Palestine and Tanzania. Who knew you could sing along to “Rubber Ducky” in Chinese? $14 | Buy here2008


Okee Dokee Brothers, Kids With Beards: Awesome, funny, bluegrass-inspired music aimed squarely at kids. $16 | Buy here


Sansa Shaker: The Shaker is shaken to change tracks, has a 1.5" speaker plus dual headphone jacks, and holds either 512 MB or 1 GB worth of songs or audio stories. Although it's labeled for ages 8 and up, we think it transitions well from speaker use for kids age 3 and up to older children, who will enjoy the ability to share music with friends and will still think the design is cool. Review. $30-$40 | Buy here

Various, Dream Songs and Night Songs from Belgium to Brazil: An international collection of nighttime songs, not necessarily lullabies. Unique and lovely, and part of an ongoing series. $15 | Buy here


Yes to Running: Bill Harley Live: Stories, songs, and comedy for kids that parents can stand too from entertainer Bill Harley. Review | $15 | Buy here


The Terrible Twos, Jerzy the Giant: Great pop/rock from a great kids' pop/rock band. | Review $14 | Buy here


USB Drum Kit: Select from among 50 percussion sounds, 20 preprogrammed percussion sets and 100 preprogrammed beats for the six pad sections, and use the "learning mode" for beats to play along with. Can record to .wav format. Great for kids age 8 and up. $30 | Buy here

Justin Roberts, Pop Fly: Just plain good pop/rock for kids. $14 | Buy here


SweetPea3 MP3 Player: The SweetPea3 is the best designed portable music player we've seen for the youngest children - no proprietary format to monkey with, just plug it in via USB and download your MP3s onto it, and music plays through a large speaker. It's easy for little kids to carry around, and difficult to damage. Recommended for kids ages 1 to 3. $60 | Buy here


Stylophone: A small electronic keyboard with classic synth sounds played with a stylus. One of the simplest - and smallest - electronic instruments available, but favored by such iconic musicians as David Bowie, Kraftwerk, Erasure, and your six-year-old. $20 | Buy here

Making Musical Instruments with Kids by Bart Hopkin: Sixty-seven projects, from the basic to the obscure. $14 | Buy here

Ellis Paul, The Dragonfly Races: Thoughtful, reverent music about nature and family. | Review $14 | Buy here

Stephen Simon, The Story of Swan Lake: A top-notch (and shortened) narrated version of the ballet little girls swoon over. Bonus non-narrated track and metal version included. Review. $9 | Buy here

Danielle Samsone, Two Flowers: Our favorite lullaby album of the year. Almost as good as Renee & Jeremy's 2007 not-exactly-lullaby-album It's A Big, Big World. | Review | Buy here


The Hollow Trees, Welcome to Nelsonville: Kids' bluegrass for the whole family. $12 | Buy here


Medeski, Martin & Wood, Let’s Go Everywhere: The most danceable chunk of kids' groove music we've heard since the Sugar Free All Stars' Dos Ninos. Complex, funky, funny jams. | Buy here

moving pictures

Wall-E Three-Disc Special Edition: We were surprised to discover that this movie's hypnotically bleak dystopian future is surface-skimmable by a four-year-old fascinated by the budding friendship between two small robots. There is something about the way Wall-E pines for Eva's affection that reminds me of what siblings go through, or even young preschool peers, as they grope their way towards accepting or rejecting each other. $25 (from $41) | Buy here


ABC3D: The variety, whimsy, and frequent surprises in this alphabet pop-up book make this book a joy. $13 | Buy here


The Electric Company: For those of us looking for high-quality, language-driven classic edutainment for our kids, this classic series is unbeatable. These four-disc sets (Vols. 1 and 2) each contain 630 minutes of great Electric Company goodness. Review. $37 | Buy here


Faerie Tale Theatre: What do Paul Reubens, Mick Jagger, Matthew Broderick, Gregory Hines, and Susan Sarandon have in common? They all appeared in this extensive series of hour-long retellings of fairy tales produced for Showtime from 1982-87. Twenty-six classic tales stick to the true tone and tenor of the original, sometimes frightening tales, so this collection is best for kids age 6 and up, or younger if not easily spooked. $50 (down from $100) | Buy here


Microcosmos: An amazing, close-up, and highly narrative series of encounters with insects, arthropods, and the other tiny creatures that surround us. Unforgettable, dramatic, and equally mesmerizing to children and adults. $15 | Buy here

Yummyfun Kooking: Truly kooky cooking with Clare Crespo, who treats foodstuffs as "an art supply" in the home-based studio where she produces her independent kids' cooking series.Review. $15 | Buy here

stories and words

Best Behavior books: Positive messages that affect great change, offering gentle guidance and friendly behavioral modeling than preaching. Review. $8 | Buy here

The Frog and Toad Collection: Classic stories read aloud by their author, Arnold Lobel. $12 | Buy here


Half An Elephant: A beautiful, playful book with collage illustrations. Review. $12 | Buy here

Heather Forest, Tales Around The Hearth: Evocative tellings of classic children's stories and songs. Review $15 | Buy here


LeapFrog Tag Reading System: Review. $50 (comes with a book) | Buy here

BOB Books: Box sets of short booklets focused on teaching specific types of words and sounds for new readers. Highly effective and fun to read. $12 | Buy here


An Awesome Book: More than anything, this is a book for reminding adults, on a daily basis if necessary, that their child's imagination is a precious thing, and that imagination and dreaming big dreams go hand in hand. $15 | Preview / Buy here


Wabi Sabi: A cat explores the meaning of her name and discovers the beauty of the imperfect. $12 | Out of stock everywhere online, find it in a store


LeapFrog Crammer: About the size of a deck of cards, the Crammer is a portable device that stores downloadable flash card and quiz content and serves it up item by item, with its display screen doubling as a four-way toggle (up/down/left/right) for answering questions and navigating through simple menus. A headphone jack supplies the audio offered in some flash card sets (for foreign-language learning, for example), making this a versatile self-study device for older kids in need of something portable that offers a break from the books. $60 | Buy here

games

Endless Ocean: Open-ended enough for four-year-olds, with simple controls (hold the "B" button to swim, and point the Wiimote in the direction you want to go) and fascinating creatures. Plenty of engaging activities for older players, too. A great early Wii game for kids. $34 | Buy here


Pet Pals: Animal Doctor: Diagnose, soothe, sedate, then turn your Wiimote into a scalpel. Great for playing with kids ages 5 and up with logical skills and an interest in animals, or for kids 8 and up by themselves. $30 | Buy here


Samba de Amigo: Wii and nunchuck become maracas in this rhythm-based game that's great for kids 5 and up. $20 | Buy here

somewhere in between

Nursery Tap: By focusing attention on a close-up view of one or a pair of dancers' leg and foot movements, Nursery Tap effectively "spotlights" the key area of interest in dance - what the body does when dancing - in a way that makes light bulbs - cannons, even - go off in young children's heads. Review. $15. [read review|buy on Amazon]Review. $20 | Buy here

One Night In Frogtown: This book and CD combo tells the story of a frog who loved all genres of music. The swinging soundtrack and captivating illustrations will fascinate kids and grownups alike, and the book and CD are designed to be enjoyed together or apart; lyrics for each song are presented in the book at their proper point in the story, so they can be read, sung along with, or listened to. $20 | Buy here


Wii Music: Easily play up to 60 different instruments gesturally in a freeform exploration of making music with your Wii. $47 | Buy here


The Money Mammals: Personal finance for the pre-K set. Solid puppetry, good tunes, and sound advice for saving, spending, and sharing your moolah. Review. $15 | Buy now

ZRecs.com photo by eurok, shared via Flickr. - Jeremiah

One of our favorite recent discoveries with our three-year-old Z has been the way storytelling and reading have evolved as related but distinct pursuits. We are big storytellers in our household and she enjoys listening to me tell made-up stories, listening to audio stories and contributing characters and ideas of her own to our impromptu sessions. At the same time, she has learned most of the alphabet, works continuously and spontaneously to "write" when drawing, and enjoys turning pages in books, following along with words, and identifying letters in games on websites like Starfall.

On the storytelling side, this evolution has been seamless, with her contributions and comprehension increasing at a smooth and steady clip. When it comes to reading, though, it is easy for parents to discover a gap with no obvious way to fill it as they make the transition from plotless picture books designed to teach spoken language to "early" readers like Harper Trophy's level 1 "I Can Read" books. Bob Books are a great way to bridge that gap.

Books are sold in sets of eight to twelve small books and are cumulative in nature. The first book in Set 1 requires knowledge of four letter sounds - M, A, S, and T - and one sight word, "on." Each subsequent book adds a couple of additional letters, until by the end of the twelve 12-page books, you've added the entire alphabet except "Q" as well as short-vowel sounds and a few more sight words, with each book continuing to use the letters and words introduced in previous books.

One of my favorite things about these books not addressed in other reviews I've read is that whenever possible the characters or objects in the illustrations are positioned according to word order. This is not always the case and some visual interest would be lost if they were but whenever it is natural to the content they are. I think this is genius, and the more complex the language of the books gets, the more interesting this process becomes.

The first of the images below is a photo by Jessica Clarkson; the others are our page scans.




These are small books, about 3x4" (that's a guess), lightweight, paperback, and stapled. They are sold in a box which does doesn't fake any additional bulk with interior cladding and which is actually the best way to store the books. Drawings are simple and include a single spot color.

A set of the books runs $16.99 retail and at first what I held in my hands felt a bit underwhelming for the price. But as we have used the first set in our home, the design has come to feel more like an evocation of the simplicity behind these books. I've also begun to realize just how much reading material is in a box - eight to twelve books per set - and to appreciate the key reason they are not simply bundled together in a book of sequenced stories. The co-creators of this series are a former schoolteacher and her architect and designer husband (he does the illustrations), and their unique blend of experience shows. These books are designed from start to finish to help kids gain confidence in reading books "all by themselves." Having small, individual books that are easy to handle is as important to this series as teaching sounds and letters a few at a time.

Bob Books sent us Sets 1 and 2 to review. Z is just now ready for them - they are labeled to be used starting at age 4, but she loves to listen to them, and since she basically knows the alphabet we think she'll start picking up the sounds soon. We went ahead and bought Set 4 for around $10 when we spotted it at a local discount bookstore.

I was surprised to discover that all the book sets currently sell for $11.55 direct from Amazon.com, over 30% below list, with free shipping if you're spending $25 on anything they warehouse. Bob Books also sells them online at a discount from list, currently at $14.95. There is also a limited-time "oversized" edition currently for sale at Costco, although there's no word on the price.

Here's a bit about each of the sets in the series.

Set 1: Beginning Readers: Twelve books with 12 pages each. Short, three-letter words and all letters of the alphabet except Q are introduced a couple at a time. This is the set we're enjoying with Z now. Plots are scant but she does not seem to care. She is fascinated by following along and seems ready to begin identifying the most obvious words (paired with their pictures) at any moment!

Set 2: Advancing Beginners: Twelve books with 16 pages each. Consistent short-vowel sounds and three-letter words. More words per page and more plurals. Plots thicken.

Level 3: Word Families: Ten books with 16 pages each. Consonant combinations, longer words and sentences, plus two activity books. When we're ready for it, we'll be buying this.

Level 4: Compound Words: Eight books, four with 16 pages and four with 24 pages. Multi-syllabic words, letter blends, longer compound words, more sight words, and additional word endings. We went ahead and purchased this set when we saw it on sale.

Level 5: Long Vowels: Eight books, four with 16 pages and four with 24 pages. Longer stories and long vowels. I'm curious to see if we'll need this set or if Z will be fully transitioned to longer books before we get there. We'll take a wait-and-see approach, but if her current level of interest is any indication, we'll probably end up with this set too.

This post from the ZRecs Archives was originally published on August 28, 2007. - Jeremiah

The Sansa Shaker is a small MP3 player from Sandisk that is designed for kids. By small, we mean very small - I didn't think to do a "player with penny" shot for this review, but at 2 3/4" tall and 1 1/2" across, two pennies would span the player's top. It's a little smaller than our salt shaker, and has a slight "waist" to give it a natural fit for little hands.

That shape is a bit of an advertisement for the Sansa Shaker's overall goal: To design an MP3 player for kids from the ground up. In our view, they have a great success on their hands, and virtually no competition for the features they're offering in this cute little player. It's labeled for ages 8 and up, but we were interested in an "off-label" use and wanted to let our three-year-old, Z, give it a trial run; Sandisk was kid enough to send us one to review. Below, a rundown of the Shaker's key features and performance.


The Shaker offers two options for play: dual headphone jacks (to encourage the sharing of music) and a 1" speaker. The speaker quality is better than you'd expect from such a small device, but of course it does best with the higher registers, so kids who demand a lot of bass in their mix might be frustrated. Of course, the older the kid, the more likely they are to just use headphones; the speaker was one of the key features that drew us to the Shaker for our three-year-old, as we have no interest in introducing her to headphones at this point. We feel obliged to mention that nobody should be selling earbud headphones to kids. If you buy this, throw them away and invest in some traditional headphones - it'll save on hearing aids later.


Press and hold the play/pause button, and the Shaker starts up with a funny little tuneful drum sound; press and hold it again and it shuts off with a similar vocalization.

The Shaker has no menu to navigate and no play options besides "next" and "previous," but uses an innovative style of ring buttons which are most akin to the kind of gearshifters you find on some mountain bikes - just twist to adjust. The top ring adjusts the volume, and the bottom one switches tracks and fast forwards and rewinds. The volume adjuster is continuous (hold it in the "twisted" position and it keeps changing) but the most relevant feature of the forward/back ring requires you to twist and release; holding it in the twisted position fast-forwards or rewinds within a track.

For track switching, though, the Shaker has an additional standout feature that little Z has had no trouble figuring out, and it's the one that gives the product its name. Holding down the play button and giving the device a single shake switches to the next track. For the product's target age range, this is simply a cool feature; for very young children, this feature makes using the Shaker possible. Z still has a hard time with the ring buttons, but she has rapidly gained confidence in changing tracks herself. Like the on/off controls, the "shake" gives the user an auditory signal of success, this time with a sandy "shaker"-like sound. Combined with the physical movement, it's a satisfyingly kinesthetic ways to interact with circuits and electrical currents.

The feature does have a couple of wrinkles, however. Since the play/pause button is used with this track-switching method, depressing the button and accidentally releasing it while or prior to shaking the device results in pausing the music rather than switching tracks, and this is easy enough to do that I have done it myself on more than one occasion while trying to switch tracks for her. If this is done, the player stops playing without it being entirely clear why it has done so, and you must release and press down the button again to make it start playing again where you left off, then try your shake again. It isn't hard to get the hang of, but it does have a learning curve.

Music is stored in MP3 format on an SD (Sandisk) memory card, naturally, and the Shaker comes in 512K and 1G versions, which is just a matter of which card is included with the device. A gently locking twist-off cap on the bottom of the Shaker hides the battery compartment and SD slot, easy enough for an adult to open but impossible for a young child to get into. The MP3 format was a key feature for us, as we didn't want to be stuck using WMA files on the device. (Coverting from iTunes ACC [M4a] format to MP3 is a snap; see comment 3 on this Lifehacker post.)

Battery life when used with the speaker is fairly low (Sandisk states it should last up to 15 hours when using headphones), but it only uses a single AAA battery, so its overall consumption still seemed low. It's supposed to have an "uh-oh" warning when it's low on juice, but we use rechargeable batteries, and with those at least it seemed to lose volume before that ever kicked in. Z would start complaining that she couldn't hear her audio story over the air conditioner, and we'd find ourselves saying to each other, "Geez, is this thing really that quiet?" for a bit before figuring out it just needed a new battery. Again, non-rechargeable batteries might drain more "efficiently," but we prefer to recharge than buy and buy and buy. Another feature we appreciate is that the Shaker shuts off if left in "pause" mode for a minute or so.

A few improvements could be made to this device. It has no track position memory or volume memory, which means that stopping the Shaker and starting it again puts you back at the beginning of a track and at a base volume. Since Z spends a lot of time listening to audio stories on it (Story Nory and some original stuff we'll unveil here in coming months) this is kind of a pain, as volume typically needs to be adjusted up for speaking tracks, and she wants to pick up where she left off. For music, we could see this being a problem if a low volume was desired. We'd also love to see a "line in" jack on a device like this; the speaker is such a premium we'd love to be able to extend its functionality to other devices, like our video iPod, which lack speakers of their own.

The one thing we had to train Z not to do with the Sandisk Shaker was hold the speaker up to her ear. A couple of quick reminders and she was good to go, but we could see other young children having the same impulse, and the maximum volume Sandisk established for this product is appropriate for projecting out from the device but not for listening to it at such a short range.

Overall, we are extremely pleased with the Sansa Shaker. Its design and basic features make it a great MP3 player for young children, and its price is quite reasonable - under $40 for the 1G version and under $30 for the 512 MB, with the included SD cards alone worth $15 to $20. Using an SD card also means its memory is compatible with other devices we use - cameras, Palm devices, etc. - so a significant chunk of the product's value is portable.

Z has carried this thing around off and on for weeks now, and listens to audio stories on it while eating breakfast almost every morning, an alternative to TV we're very comfortable with. She still finds manipulating some of the buttons a challenge, which is why we'd highly recommend this product for kids ages four and up, and for three-year-olds for adventurous techies who like to play with their kids' toys.

The Sansa Shaker is available from Amazon.com in 512 MB and 1G versions for about $30-$40.

This post from the ZRecs Archives was originally published on October 3, 2007. - Jeremiah

I've always loved Leslie Patricelli's bold, cartoonish, yet slightly textural children's book illustrations, which are painted and then photographed for reproduction. This set of three of her baby-themed board books makes a great gift for toddlers and the pre-K set. If our test subject is any indication, there is nothing funnier than watching gleeful babies happily doing bad things. In theory these books could also be used to help teach behavioral rules to toddlers, but we have found them to be the most fun during that period where young children are learning to define themselves from impulsive tots (obsessive stuffed animal scolding and discipline is a clear indicator you've entered this stage).


You can pick up this set for $13 and change, down from $20, on Amazon.com. - Jeremiah