These are a few of our favorite things...

As 2009 hurtles to a close, I thought I'd share a few of our favorite things on the books and music front. One of the many wonderful things about being an improvisor is that everything is grist for the improv mill...just like common advice for writers is to read a lot, same is true for improvisors. The more diversity we are exposed to, the more choices our imaginations have as possibilities when we start making things up.

So here's some music and books we enjoyed (and occasionally both combined):

Top Songs of 09
LP gets very attached to songs. We started the year with the incessant refrain of "My Favorite Things"...thank goodness I love Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music because that song was truly on nonstop. Here's some other songs that took several spins on our cd player and ipods:

"Choo Choo Boogaloo" by Buckwheat Zydeco (on the album of the same name)
"Riding on the Buggy" by Phil (on the album Turkey in the Straw)
"Shoveling" by Tom Chapin (on the album Family Tree)
"Roller in the Coaster" by Justin Roberts (on Putamayo's Folk Playground)

A few artists got major play with more than one song in the rotation...pretty much anything by The Carpenters, Asheba (wonderful, local artist, one of my favorite children's performers and I've seen many in a past life in arts-in-education) and currently The Allman Brothers.

Also books that are songs like Raffi's Baby Baluga and Natalie Bernard Westcott's Skip to My Lou were happily read/sang all year long. (I enjoy Westcott's illustrations so I pick up anything at the library that she's written or illustrated.)


Favorite Kids Books
LP and I are major library hounds...and we got through lots and lots of books. These are the ones that stand out and came home with us multiple times (mostly picture books although some are also available in board book form):

I've always loved Bruce Degan's Jamberry and this year we discovered Daddy is a Doodlebug -- an instant hit in our house.

Olivier Dunrea's gosling books especially Gossie and Gossie & Gertie

Farm Fresh Cats by Scott Santoro... a quirky book about the day that something extraordinary happens on Farmer Ray's farm.

Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

The Mouse and the Buddha by Kathryn Price

Count by Denise Fleming

Time for Bed by Mem Fox

Hush Little Baby by Sylvia Long

Poppleton books by Cynthia Rylant and Mark Teague (early reader book)

Night House, Bright House by Monica Wellington

Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson

The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

The Alphabet from A to Y with bonus letter Z by Steve Martin & Roz Chast

Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Tabak

And pretty much anything by Dr. Seuss, Sandra Boynton or Ezra Jack Keats.