Duck Ellington Swings Through the Zoo [With Jazz CD]

My three year old niece plays this every day and has a good time using the book with the program.

My 2 1/2 year old already knew - and liked - all the characters because we have "On the Road," another book in the series. The zoo theme is a popular one for toddlers and the pictures are great. The accompanying CD is good, too.

This series is wonderful! Our two-year-old absolutely loves the Baby Loves Jazz series. We bought a few to start out, then ended up buying the whole set. Two months after acquiring them, she is still enamored and requests to listen to them and read them every day. Her favorites? Well, these are the words we hear most often: "Mommy, read Duck and Miles?" or "Daddy, listen to Duck and Miles?" Philly Joe is also high on the list. I recommend them all. The books stand out on their own, but the music is what makes this series really shine. For example, on Duck Ellington's CD, he does a great Monk style on one track, then switches to great impression of Coltrane's classic quartet on the next track, with a very nice McCoy Tyner impression. Lots of variety and high quality make this series worthwhile (though I could have done without Louis Lion's potty tune). Don't forget the Go Baby Go CD as well (a stand-alone CD without a book), which is perhaps a notch above the music on the book CDs. The ABC tune is her favorite on that one.

When my son hears this CD he calms down immediately. It is like magic. We had the CD in the car for a long trip and whenever he started getting fussy, we put it on. Within seconds he was bopping his head along to the music. I do not know what it is about it that he loves so much - but we are buying more in the series.

My tenth-month old absolutely loves this CD. She crawls over to the radio, stands up and starts bopping to the music whenever we play it. She loves the animal sounds as well. We can't play it during dinnertime, however, since she gets distracted and wants to get down from the high chair to dance.