The Little Blue Doggy

Gr 2—5—Noël Ferdinand Lionel Daunais was an award-winning French Canadian musician who died in 1982. This CD/book set contains 13 of his songs, translated from the French and performed by Michelle Campagne and family. The title number is presented in a picture-book format, while the lyrics for the rest of the songs are contained in the back of the book. The music is catchy and interesting, but the songs themselves make defining an audience difficult. They are bluntly clever, sometimes a little existential, a tad precious, and present ideas that on the surface seem archly amusing but on further reflection are a bit disturbing. They seem aimed at the young, but the vocabulary and the slightly twisted nature of some of the humor would fly right over the heads of small children, or give them nightmares. The title song, for example, is about a yarn puppy whose parents lock him in a closet so they can go out and enjoy themselves. The pup is eaten by mites, leaving only his tail behind. His mother gets to work knitting him anew. Odd. The other songs are amusing and singable, but perhaps the concepts simply don't translate well in the translation from French to English. The musicians certainly do an excellent job with the material, and the performances are quite good. Adult fans of Daunais will find this collection of his music amusing. It's just hard to recommend it for young children.—Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA