Sing Me This Book!

July 12, 2007 5:34 AM

What are some good children's books that have been put to song?

I'm trying to find books for young children that have accompanying songs i.e. you can sing the entire book to a child page by page. A couple I've found are "Chicken Soup With Rice" sung by Carole King and "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom", which has a pretty catchy song to go with it.

Are there other good ones out there?

posted by gfrobe to media & arts (16 comments total)

"Your Personal Penguin" - the book was written by Sandra Boynton and the song is sung by Davy Jones of the Monkees. You can download the song for free here.
posted by christinetheslp at 5:39 AM on July 12, 2007

There's a series of Raffi sing along books. These are songs that have been turned into books rather than books put to song, but kids seem to enjoy them.
posted by waterlily at 6:00 AM on July 12, 2007

I love Pete Seeger's storysong Abiyoyo, though I'm not such a big fan of the book. Several versions of the song are available on iTunes; I particularly like Seeger's live version from the Children's Concert at Town Hall.
posted by kittydelsol at 6:20 AM on July 12, 2007

"Chicken Soup With Rice" sung by Carole King

Don't know how you found this particular song, but are you aware that it's part of a larger piece? "Really Rosie" is a musical play combining the four books in the Nutshell library (Chicken Soup with Rice, Alligators All Around, Pierre, One Was Johnny) with Really Rosie.

The animated film is charming. It was my favorite thing in the world in elementary school -- the librarian used to let us borrow a projector and watch it over and over.
posted by desuetude at 6:25 AM on July 12, 2007

Even though this site doesn't seem to have books that accompany the cds, there are dvds and other media that might interest you. I found this artist on my yahoo music player and just love the songs. I don't have children but listen to the music anyhow because it puts a smile on my face and is downright fun. You should definitely check out the site and sample songs, I am sure children would absolutely love it!
posted by NotInTheBox at 6:36 AM on July 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Not a book, but the song "Puff the Magic Dragon" was based on a poem by Leonard Lipton.
posted by JaredSeth at 6:36 AM on July 12, 2007

"There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly" comes to mind immediately. You haven't lived until you've heard The King's Singers perform it.
posted by jquinby at 6:56 AM on July 12, 2007

Seconding the Raffi books. Baby Beluga is a favorite at our house. We bought it at the Vancouver Aquarium after seeing the Beluga show.
posted by pmbuko at 7:49 AM on July 12, 2007

Someone did "Goodnight, Moon" but I can't look it up now.
posted by sourwookie at 8:09 AM on July 12, 2007

The Wheels on the Bus
posted by iconomy at 8:35 AM on July 12, 2007

Dylan Hears a Who is a funny, spot-on series of Dr. Seuss books sung in the style of 60's Bob Dylan.

Yikes, looks like they had to pull the songs from the site. I have them all, would be happy to provide them if you want to contact me matt.holomew(at)gmail(dot)com
posted by mattholomew at 9:05 AM on July 12, 2007

Free to be You and Me
posted by brujita at 9:18 AM on July 12, 2007

Thanks for the suggestions all. Matt, I'll send you an email tomorrow. Would love to hear one or two of those tracks.
posted by gfrobe at 9:35 AM on July 12, 2007

I second Abiyoyo. If there's one thing that has stuck in my mind from childhood, it's the Abiyoyo reading/singing segment from Reading Rainbow.
posted by JibberJabber at 11:07 AM on July 12, 2007

Several of Shel Silverstein's poems have been put to music.
posted by SisterHavana at 8:46 PM on July 13, 2007

Another Sandra Boynton one - Philadelphia Chickens. Also, Meg Davis's album The Music of Wonderland, songs about the Alice books. Unlike the Boynton one, though, you can't sing the book page by page, as the whole text is not in the songs. And caveats for both of these - the three year-old I gave the former to wasn't interested (too young?) and I found the latter sung in a dreary way.
posted by paduasoy at 2:49 AM on July 15, 2007