Non Mainstream baby books and music

[boatbaby]

I'd love to get input for non-mainstream baby/kids books and music. I would consider mainstream to be anything baby einstein, disney, good night moon, etc. And in music anything Raffi, wiggles, disney, etc. Basicaly books and music NOT tied to a TV show, movie, or product line.

Here's what I have for my 4.5 month old ds that I can suggest.
BOOKS:
Edward Lear: The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense.
(he predates Shel Silverstein by about 100 years. The Owl and The Pussycat and other silly rhymes)

Ant & Bee & The Rainbow by Angela Banner. British author of the 1960's. The whole Ant & Bee series is great.

MUSIC:
Ella Jenkins (she wrote the book on kids' music, so to speak, before Raffi was probably born. And he still doesn't shine a light to her work)

Woodie Guthrie (silly fun songs)

And my little guy loves Bob Marley. Don't know why. babies just love reggae!

Let's hear some other unobvious favorites...?

[OhMel]

We love Dan Zanes and Friends for music. We're going to see them this weekend and I am very excited. They Might Be Giants is another popular one here. But DS's real favorite is Dead Can Dance. We have a concert DVD (after he wore out the video) and he loves all of the instruments, especially the percussion.

[LunaMom]

Another Dan Zanes fan here.

Scholastic puts out a series of videos that are animated versions of children's books. I don't know if you would call that mainstream of not, but the videos are all really low-key and sweet, and the books they choose are of good quality - Maurice Sendak, Kevin Henkes, good picture book authors. However, you say your child is only 4 1/2 months old, so videos are for later. My biggest problem with those baby Einstein things is that they promote television watching for babies, and I really don't think babies should be watching videos. It's not going to kill them, but I don't see how it's necessary. You don't even need it for "babysitting" - my daughter just sat in a bouncy in the bathroom when I took showers and sang to her in my off-key voice the whole time!

[ShannonCC]

Originally Posted by boatbaby

I'd love to get input for non-mainstream baby/kids books and music. I would consider mainstream to be anything baby einstein, disney, good night moon, etc. And in music anything Raffi, wiggles, disney, etc. Basicaly books and music NOT tied to a TV show, movie, or product line.

Goodnight Moon is commercial? That's not a tv show or anything is it?

My ds doesn't like to be read to as much as my dd does (or did at his age) so my book suggestions will be older.

Books : We really enjoy folk tales and myths. I *adore* most of the books by Gerald McDermott. I particularly liked Creation (Biblical) but my dd's favorite was Musicians of the Sun (Aztec)

We like most anything by Demi for the artwork.

By various authors, we seem to be drawn to Anansi stories. I think McDermott did some but just generally browsing the folklore section of the library I found others.

The Fire Children by Eric Maddern is a favorite of both of ours. It's a West African creation tale. It involves Anansi but he's human form, not spider here, which caused a bit of confusion (for me - my dd didn't care )

Urgh, I have a sleeping 2 year old on my lap or I'd go find some more titles. All I can give you now are the ones I can think of with help of my very feeble memory (and Amazon.com to confirm details :LOL)

My dd's favorite book is Nim's Island by Wendy Orr. It's a chapter book aimed at young readers. It's an adventure story about a girl who lives on an island alone with her dad and some animals. She is accidentally left alone for about a week and has to deal with a storm, some bad guys, etc. It's really not as scary as it sounds and is lots of fun. I don't mind that I've had to read it to her three times now Oh, the mother is dead though, so keep that in mind.

We really enjoyed the original Pooh stories but that might count as commercial because of the stuff that came later (?)

Oooo, want a good depressing read? Tales from Old Ireland by Malachy Doyle. Ok, some of these stories make me look like this (ever heard Children of Lir???) but my dd is loving this book. My mom got it for her when she was 3 and I immediately put it away as "too dark". She found it the other week and asked me to read it to her It's sort of like the Brothers Grimm though, so beware! (maybe not as bloody but still very dark in parts)

This is a fun thread Maybe after Boy-O wakes, I'll get some more titles and come back here tonight to bore people with them

Music : We don't really listen to kid's music. I have some Raffi and Wiggles but the kids like grown up music just fine so . . . . . They never ask and I never put it on.

Currently my dd's favorite CDs are from the Classical Kids line. We started with Beethoven Lives Upstairs which is Beethoven music combined with a fictional story about his life. We also took out the book to read along with it. Because of that CD we've been pretty much entrenched in classical music the past month or so. I've played a lot of Beethoven and Bach (she likes Bach's music but she didn't like his Classical Kids story as much - Mr. Bach Comes to Call ). Actually, now I think she's listening to one of the Mozart CDs called Mozart's Fantastic Voyage (I think). (you know, I just re-read this and don't know if you would consider this commercial? The "product line" is just the CDs though so )

We also listen to just plain old classical with no story over it. I put on Beethoven's 9th one day, the choral part at the end, very dramatic, and she and I ran around like maniacs with the sound cranked up, waving our hands like conductors and having a grand old time Of course DS was painting with his dad instead. He's not very much into music

Whew! I think that's it. For now

[lorijds]

I third the Dan Zane recommendation. The one that we love is called "Night Time!" I believe.

Another of our favorites right now is "The Bottle Let Me Down". It's a compliation, music is good, and is sort of blue-grass/alt country. We all love it.

[boatbaby]

Goodnight Moon is commercial? That's not a tv show or anything is it?

No tv show (I don't think so anyhow) But an extensive product line... you can get the nightlight, the calendar, the journal, the stuffed animals, the CD, the VHS tape, the board game... you catch my drift?

Thanks to all for the great suggestions and keep them coming!

[simcon]

For music, we like "no!" by they might be giants, all of the "x playground" cd's (world playground, latin playground, african playground) put out by putumayo, ella jenkins, and "happy songs" by milkshake (http://www.milkshakemusic.com/). This last one maddie has adored since birth--I just saw that they had another cd out, and can't wait for her to hear it. We also like to listen to kelsey grammar read "cat in the hat"...

[traceface]

for music:

Ralph Covert of "Ralph's World" and "Happy Lemons" albums. Also we really enjoy Peter Himmelman's My Best Friend Is a Salamander. I totally agree on the Dan Zanes. Also, the They Might Be Giants'' albums No and Bed are good kids' ones, but some of their other albums (such as Flood, John Henry, Then) are also popular w/ my 2 year old. That group is just so whimsical and child-like anyway.

There's also a series put out by Music for Little People that has, for instance, A child's celebration of folk music, A child's celebration of songs from musicals, et al. In general, that website (www.mflp.com) has a lot of interesting looking music and books. so many good things to discover.

I'll come back later and post some book ideas. I love this kind of thread!