Customer Reviews

Picnic Playground

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The theme of a brand new music CD for children from Putumayo Kids are songs about food, cooking and healthy eating. Drawing from Australia, Cuba, Denmark, France, German, Canada, Trinidad, South Africa, and the USA, "Picnic Playground" offers a toe-tapping internationally oriented entertainment that will engage the attention and appreciation of children. A flawless technical production, this CD features twelve entertaining compositions that include Eat Like a Rainbow; Mes Parents Sant Bio; Bolitas de Arroz con Pollo; Ice Cream; Goutez-les; Peberpelikan; Beautiful Day; Bowl of Cherries; Pomodora; shoo fly Pie; Let's Bake Cookies; and Milch. Unique, original, thoroughly 'kid friendly', and enthusiastically recommended for family, preschool, elementary school, and community library CD music collections, "Picnic Playground" features liner notes in English, Spanish and French.

The latest in Putumayo's always-fun series of "Playground" CDs for kids, Picnic Playground contains 12 multi-lingual songs about food (with a bent towards learning to eat healthy and supporting natural foods).

None of the artists are "big names" (but the liner notes will lead you to the albums the tracks were taken from) but they are all kid-oriented. Five of the songs have English lyrics (because the artist is from the US, Canada or other English-speaking countries like Trinidad). For the rest there is a brief explanation of the songs' subjects but no English translation.

All the songs were new to me except the 1920s hit "Shoo Fly Pie (and Apple Pan Dowdy)" and "Bowl of Cherries" - which is the old field workers song "Pick a Bale of Cotton" with the word "cherries" being substituted for "cotton".

There are songs about milk, ice cream, cookies and tomatoes as well as encourages kids to eat naturally colorful fruits and veggies. 1% of the proceeds will be donated by Putumayo to Vitamin Angels - a non-profit.

While this isn't my favorite "Playground" CD (World Playground is still hard to top for repeat playing), this disc is a nice addition to the growing collection which expands kids music beyond the cultural borders of the US.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

This CD is really good. My kids and I both love it. All of the songs are good. We dance around the kitchen to it.

The songs are fun to listen to but may make you think about food! The variety of musical styles makes it an entertaining CD to dance to.

I love Putumayo kids CD's. It is such happy music that offers great sounds along with sharing other international cultures. My 3 year old daughter always wants me to play the Spanish song. If you want to introduce your child to more than just English songs this is the CD. Putumayo offers many more CD's, but this one is our favorite.

Unlike the majority of kid-centric music, this CD is full of songs that are enjoyable for adults as well. The majority of songs (maybe all of them?) are sung by adults rather than a group of kids and the artists are varied & really good. We bought this before a long road trip with my 2-year-old and none of us got tired of it during the trip.

This was the first CD in this series that I bought for my son. Up until this point he had been used to music sung by children and he told me plainly that he did not like it. However, I pointed out to him how much fun Bolitas de Arroz con Pollo is as I sang along. He was also very intrigued by the steel drums in Ice Cream. By the third time I played it, he had come around. Now he loves this CD, and his favorite cuts are # 1, 3, 4, 8, 10, & 11. We listen to it in the car all the time and he sings along with all his favorites.