Award-winning publisher The Secret Mountain will release Swing Café, a storybook-music CD featuring narration by Grammy-nominated and world-renowned Brazilian artist Bebel Gilberto and acclaimed Canadian actor David Francis. The narration is interspersed with classic recordings from jazz and swing legends including Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Lionel Hampton and more. Swing Café follows the release of several acclaimed Secret Mountain releases including Sunday in Kyoto and My Name Is Chicken Joe, which have earned praise from Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Times, AOL Kids, Associated Press, Scholastic Parent & Child and more.
Swing Café is written by Carl Norac, award-winning author of more than 40 children’s books, including the Publisher’s Weekly bestseller, I Love You So Much. It tells the story of Zaz, a little Brazilian cricket that dreams of singing in New York. After hopping a ride on a woman’s fruit hat that takes her from her homeland to Manhattan, she meets a savvy fly named Buster who brings her to the Swing Café on East 54th Street. Everyone there speaks a common language, called Swing, and Zaz is inspired to take to the stage, sing from the heart, and deliver the performance of a lifetime.
The storybook-music CD features vivid illustrations by Rebecca Dautremer, illustrator of The Secret Lives of Princesses and more than 30 other children’s books. This innovative packaging, combining a hardcover book with a CD, is ideal for young children.
Swing Café is also available in a basic CD-Digipak format with a printable PDF file of the illustrated book.
The Secret Mountain continues its award-winning series of children’s storybook-music CDs this October with the release of The Little Blue Doggy, which features songs by iconic Canadian composer and lyricist Lionel Daunais and performed by acclaimed singer-songwriters Michelle Campagne & Family.
Recently inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Lionel Daunais wrote the 13 songs that accompany The Little Blue Doggy. Recipient of numerous awards including the Canadian Music Council Medal and the posthumous Denise-Pelletier Award, Daunais’ songs are light-hearted and musically diverse, including, “Hopscotch Song,” “My Sister Is a Popsicle,” and “The Soles of My Brand New Shoes.” The title song tells the story of a little blue stuffed doggy who falls victim to famished mites after having been left at home alone. Upon his parent’s return, they discover his soggy red cotton tail on the floor and are faced with the challenge of putting him back together.
The storybook-music CD features vivid textural illustrations by award-winning children’s illustrator Marie Lafrance who has received critical acclaim for La Diablesse and the Baby (a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist), La fee des bonbons and Le Grand voyage de monsieur Caca.
The Little Blue Doggy is also available in a basic CD-Digipak format with a printable PDF file of the illustrated book.
The Little Blue Doggy from The Secret Mountain on Vimeo.
The Secret Mountain is dedicated to the creation of children’s books, videos and audio recordings of the highest quality. Recent releases by The Secret Mountain include the acclaimed My Name is Chicken Joe, by Trout Fishing in America, Sunday in Kyoto, which features songs by Canadian cultural icon Gilles Vigneault, and Down at the Sea Hotel, which features dream songs by icons including Neil Young, Tom Waits, Don Henley and Billy Joel as performed by roots music artists Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka and Guy Davis, among others.
Each of The Secret Mountain’s innovative storybook-music CDs features a hardbound book with an album of music included in the back cover.
One reader will receive Swing Café and another reader will receive The Little Blue Doggy. Also, be sure to check out all of our other giveaways HERE.
A complimentary product/service was provided for this review; however, all opinions expressed are our own. We were not compensated in any other way for this review. See Mommies With Cents disclosure policy for more details.