Contest: Win Trout Fishing in America's New Book/CD

I already told you about the new book/CD set from Trout Fishing in America, My Name is Chicken Joe. (The set is now set to be released April 21.) Well, now you have a chance to win a copy, courtesy of The Secret Mountain. That's right, one lucky Zooglobble reader will get to curl up with the hardcover book while listening to the 11-song CD featuring tracks from Trout's many kids' CDs. (Or one or the other -- I'm not that prescriptive on what you do with it if you win.) All you need to do is enter a comment below with the craziest (or un-craziest) name for a pet you ever had. One winner will be selected at random; all entries due by midnight east coast time Thursday night. One entry per family, please. And good luck!

It's My Week To Catchup - Cybils Winner Announced. Seven Weeks Ago.

Many ~~weeks~~ months ago, I let you know that nominations were open for the Cybils awards, which does for children's literature what Fids and Kamily does for children's and family music. I was sitting on the Fiction Picture Book judges committee, helped select the winner, and did I let you know what it was? No! I'm a total loser. Mid-February was waaaay busy for me. Anyway, better late than never -- the Fiction Picture Book winner was How To Heal a Broken Wing, written and illustrated by Bob Graham. It's a lovely book, which tells its story with few words but excess grace. Worth tracking down, even seven weeks later.

See, This Video Is From A Book...

I know, I know, I'm spending a lot of time this week on videos (go now -- vote on TMBG vs. Shana Berry or Mark Kozelek vs. Egg), but thought I'd do something different. You know, post a YouTube video about a song associated with a book. It's from Trout Fishing in America, and it's the title track from their book My Name is Chicken Joe. It features 11 songs (track listing after the jump) and the storybook featured in the video below. I like curling up with a book better, but the video gives you a good idea what to expect. My Name is Chicken Joe is out April 7 on Secret Mountain. Trout Fishing in America - "The Ballad of Chicken Joe"

The Peter Yarrow Songbook: Why Didn't I Think Of That?

It's about time. I mean, why more artists don't hop on board the songbook bandwagon is surprising to me. Dan Zanes, Ralph Covert, and Laurie Berkner have dipped their toes in that water, but Peter Yarrow is diving in headfirst. In a couple weeks, he'll be releasing two books, Favorite Folk Songs and Sleepytime Songs, that each feature lyrics, guitar notations, and notes on 12 classic folk songs. In addition, they'll each include a CD of the book's songs featuring Peter, Bethany and Rufus, a trio featuring Yarrow, his daughter Bethany Yarrow, and cellist Rufus Cappadocia. He's not stopping there -- Songs to Sing Together will be released next year and Nursery Rhymes is currently on tap for 2010. The beauty of these books (besides the, well, beauty of the illustrations) is that they're a great mix of tunes familiar and less so. So families looking to sing together -- and why shouldn't they? -- will have a few songs they can easily master along with some songs they can learn. I'm not always a fan of CDs embedded in picture books -- where do we keep 'em, for one thing -- but I think for this purpose, it's great. While families could get many of these things in just a regular CD with liner notes, I think by putting it in book format, it encourages the singing rather than the listening. It's a concept a lot of other artists could consider. Anyway, here are the track listings for the two CDs.