Fun songs for kids

It is never easy finding songs that kids will like. It is even more difficult to find songs that kids of different ages will like. These songs are tried and tested by two of the pickiest critics I know-my sons aged 7 and 4. On some of our many long trips these songs have had them singing and grooving along and asking for them to be played (over and over and over). This list will feature some popular songs as well as some that unless you actively search out music for kids you probably may not have heard about.

I hadn't heard of the Dream Jam band but I picked up their cd at the library a while ago and this song quickly became one of our favorites, listened to at least four times a day going to and from work and school with the little ones. It tells the story of a kid's hilarious attempt to get his hair to behave. It has good lyrics and a great beat. Oh yeah!

Lots of young kids are fussy about food but this song is a surefire way to at least sing about how much food they will eat. Yo Gabba Gabba songs are always well produced and this one called "Party in my Tummy"  is no different. The bass in this song is tremendous, so you may want to turn it down just a tad.

Another song that is on heavy rotation in our playlist is "Lots of Little Pigs" by perennial favorite Laurie Berkner. It is rather long and it is a story song but I think this is why my little one likes it so much. The storytelling aspect of it keeps them enthralled and the singing parts are catchy as well. It is not on youtube but here are the lyrics and it is found on this cd.

The song "Six Months on a Leaky Boat" is a classic and I did not even realize that before I began looking things up for this post. The Wiggles have made the song their own in this hilarious rendition.  My wife thinks that were it not for Captain Feathersword's funny interjections from time to time the song could easily be played on an easy listening station due mainly in part to Greg's soothing voice.

This is another quiet song that usually has the kids listening. The beautiful Christine Anu's voice is so mellifluous and although we can't make out any of the words besides the title,"Taba Naba" we enjoy it immensely. Check it out here.

Manhunt by Kate Messner

I totally judged this book by its cover. It features three kids in a foreign city in all-action poses. They seem to be on the trail of some bad guy and they look determined to get him.  I thought to myself that it was worth a try.

The three main protagonists Henry Anna and Jose all know each other from other and are  junior members of the Silver Jaguar society, an awarded bestowed on them due to a case they solved together involving a stolen Star-Spangled Banner. They are all related in some way to full-fledged members of the society as well. As one would expect from some tweens their involvement with the dangerous criminals is minimal. Truth be told most of their involvement with the bad guys involves running from some goons.

The book started off really well with a spate of art thefts across the globe triggering panic in the art world. This causes an emergency meeting of the society in its Boston headquarters. Henry, Most of the action occurs in the city of lights, Paris. Although how they get there does seem a bit far fetched.  There is another member that they meet but he seems to know too much for a kid. I found this character a bit snooty. As you would expect there are some twists along the way but there is a happy ending to the story.

I have a few gripes about this book. First, the kids are not actually on a manhunt. They are looking for stolen loot and following some cryptic clues along the way. They have an unbelievable encounter with a relative of the main antagonist of the story that left me shaking my head. Another gripe I have is that there are too many threads that are not explored. Messner mentions something that piques reader interest and then whizzes on to a next detail leaving the reader hanging. I suspect though that we may learn more about Henry's background in further editions.

To its credit the book features excellent descriptions of Paris (food, places, small cultural tidbits) as well as many literary references (one of the characters is a bookworm). The language is accessible and the description of the gamut of emotions Henry experiences is well done also. Overall this is an ok read for a nine to twelve year old.

Arcady's Goal by Eugene Yelchin

Soccer is unquestionably the world's game and its legions of fans experience the highs and lows of each game and discuss the team feverishly all week. Some of the biggest stars of today came from humble backgrounds but they have used their skill to create a better life for themselves and their families. The game is not immune to real life concerns however and sadly sometimes politics becomes entwined with sports as occurred recently. Wars have been fought over results in soccer games and people have been killed over the outcome of matches.

In Eugene Yelchin's book Arcady's Goal, the title character lives in a rough camp for orphans in the Soviet Union in 1945. His parents have been deemed enemies of the state and he has been sent to live in a camp, guarded by tough armed guards and under the rule of the despot Butterball who organizes soccer exhibitions for Arcady to show off his skill. It is in one of these exhibitions that Arcady is spotted by an inspector called Ivan Ivanych. To his surprise the inspector returns to the camp with papers to adopt the young boy.

Historical fiction novels can sometimes have gross inaccuracies but I think the fact that the author's father was a Soviet who loved and played soccer gives him some credence. His description of Arcady's fist impressions of Ivanych's house and food is heartbreaking. Arcady convinces his new father of his love for the game and Ivanych agrees to find a team for him if Arcady will agree to learn to read. The first time Arcady plays with boys his age his skill is breathtaking but due to political differences he doesn't play on that team.

Ivanych himself has secrets as Arcady begins to discover. All is not lost however as they learn of a tryout to be held by the Red Army team, on which Arcady's hero, Fedor Bruko plays. A special pass is needed just to go to the tryout however and one thing becomes certain, the tryout is of tremendous importance for both of them. Ivanych has his own reasons for adopting the young kid. Arcady's goal has been transformed from an on field one to an off field one as well.

In the afterword of the book Yelchin gives a personal account of the after effects of the Communist Stalinist regime and the way in which it destroyed generations of families systematically. Relations between the United States and Russia are somewhat frayed now but it is fascinating to learn about this nation's sad past and to see how even today citizens are struggling with the legacy of decisions taken well before they were born. I recommend this book for those aged 11+.

Watched by CJ Lyons

    Technology has created avenues for exposure and at times overexposure. At times this can lead to making and breaking reputations. There are armies of hackers across the world who live by finding incriminating information about people from all walks of life and then blackmailing or extorting them. Celebrities usually have the resources to fight off these allegations but the average person does not.

 Jesse is a teen who lives with his uncle. His father walked out on the family and so his mother was forced to seek refuge at her brother's.  There has been a string of arsons in the town and Jesse's uncle, a firefighter, is kept busy. This is not the only thing on his mind however as Jesse is virtual slave to a mysterious person called King.

King discovered something that a family member did to Jesse when he was younger and spread it across the internet. Now he has Jesse at his mercy- Jesse has a phone that he must answer anytime King calls or else people in his life can suffer. Jesse is at the end of his rope and sees a bleak future for himself until he gets in touch with Miranda a skilled hacker who is on a mission to trap King and expose him. Both these kids have complicated back stories and differing motives for wanting King caught.

Though the second half of the book read somewhat like an espionage thriller with high tech gadgets, manhunts and inter agency task forces it did make for an engaging read. This novel is a fictional tale but it cyber bullying is a very real occurrence which in some extreme cases has caused kids to commit suicide. This is a timely book by CJ Lyons and while it is not exactly a cautionary tale it would still be a good read for those 14 and up.

In Real Life by Lawrence Tabak

   Whenever I think about a gamer kid the image of a socially awkward pimply kid comes to mind. Seth (called ActionSeth online) is a gaming and math prodigy from the Midwest. He loves the game Starfare and spends hours playing in order to achieve his goal of turning pro and living in Korea. For all his mental abilities he is awkward in school and  although he has a crush on a pretty girl called Beth he never does anything to show her how he feels.
 
 Seth's parents are divorced and his brother is a jock college basketball player. Seth lives with his dad, a travelling salesman who seems to love to berate poor Seth whenever he comes home from one of his business trips. When his dad encourages him to get a job so that he doesn't have to go live with his mom (they have an awkward  relationship) he does so at a local pizza parlor. It is there that he meets Hannah, a girl he develops an instant crush on. Hannah seems intrigued by Seth's gaming prowess and academic talent. Seth for his part admires Hannah for her artsy side and free spirit.
   
Seth had entered a gaming contest where he was beaten soundly by the Koreans. His play attracted the attention of a top Korean gaming team and before he knows it Seth finds himself overseas. Everything does not end happily ever after however and Seth soon finds that the pace of life, his difficulty adjusting and the fact that he misses people back home interfere with his overall play. He must then make some very adult decisions despite the fact that he is only sixteen.
     
Tabak's book is an in depth look at the life of a teenager who achieves his life's goal early. Some people don't do so until they are many years older and some don't even know what their goal is in life For that I applaud Seth because he was offered an opportunity and he reached out and grabbed it. He did not neglect is studies though so even when things got rough he knew that he had other options. This, I think is the most important takeaway from the novel.

Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata

   Jfic books rarely deal with sensitive topics but Kadohata's book Half a World Away deals with something that I have rarely discussed with other adults-adoption.  I do not know how many couples enter into a relationship intending to adopt but I would love to see those stats. In this book, told through the eyes of young Jaden we meet a family that is just now coming to terms with Jaden's behavior. He has hard a hard time adjusting to life and has some weird behavior patterns for which he has seen several therapists.
     Although his parents love him very much they don't feel complete and are determined to go Kazakhstan to adopt a baby. Jaden himself was adopted from Romania as a young child and he vaguely remembers his mother before she abandoned him. He claims not to love his parents and truth be told, his parents, or at least his adopted father may love him but seems not to like him very much.
    Jaden realizes how charmed his life is when he interacts with locals. The driver, Sam is my favorite character in this book and I like his sly digs at American culture. In essence he shows Jaden that for all their wealth Americans sometimes lose sight of the simple things in life.  The family traveled halfway across the world intending to adopt one child but due to the bizarre nature of the process that child ends up going to a German family. As it so happens after the family is shown some babies the parents and Jaden end up liking different babies. Both children seem to have special needs and I applaud Jaden's parents for even considering adopting them as many parents probably would not have done so.
     This book is not a feel good book, it is very moody and deals with some difficult subject matter and emotions. Mature children would probably get into this book but it is so different from a lot of the standard jfic fare that is out there that I would not readily recommend this to patrons.

   

Death Coming Up The Hill by Chris Crowe

 Those who do not learn from the events of History are doomed to repeat it. I always think of that saying whenever events transpire that give me a sense of deja vu. Those who lived long enough to see the fall out from the Vietnam War may have been saddened by the nation's involvement in two wars we could not win in Iraq and Afghanistan. I remember when the Iraq wars first started how sad it was to see the daily count on the news and see the bodies being brought home. With our twenty four hour news cycle, coverage was much more in depth than it was forty odd years ago yet still I felt a sense of detachment from the events over there.

The book Death Coming Up the Hill by Chris Crowe is a small ode to the soldiers who perished and/or went MIA in Vietnam. Told completely in haiku form the book relates one year in the life of a teenager called Ashe who lives with his parents in Arizona. Theirs is a loveless marriage although they both love Ashe dearly.

Ashe has a vibrant English teacher Mr. Reed who does not shy away from the realities of what is happening to the young men fighting in Vietnam. He gets very emotional about the subject but this is because he has a strong sense of right and wrong and knows that what is going on there could never be right.

Ashe also meets a kindred spirit with whom he can talk about the war as well as his turbulent family life. As his home life unravels Ashe has some tough decisions to make and eventually decides to do what will benefit his mom the most.

I flipped this book open when it came in and I saw the haiku and assumed it was a poetic ode to the war but only after examining it closely did I discover that it was indeed a novel. The verse form did not impede the narrative and it flowed smoothly. As I reflect on how hard it is to compose haiku, this is some feat.  Despite the fact that the book deals with happenings from the 1960s it is still relevant today due to the fact that many of these same issues are still unresolved and in some cases are even worse today.