Medeski, Martin & Wood has a devoted fan base from years of touring, and they’re going to add the younger set to it with this engaging and delightful mash-up of kids’ music with their trademark jazz and funk.

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They Might Be Giants: Here Come the 123s: On their third CD for kids, TMBG continues what made their first two essential listening: a combination of hook-filled music with lyrics that will get parents and kids cracking up. "High Five" celebrates the joy of palm-slapping, while "One Everything" gets metaphysical about everything's uniqueness in a tasty pop morsel. While it's number-themed, Here Come the 123s is not really intended as an educational CD, and that's good - instead, it's pure entertainment. The accompanying DVD adds energetic and hilarious animation to the tracks.

Medeski, Martin & Wood - Let's Go Everywhere: MMW has a devoted fan base from years of touring, and they're going to add the younger set to it with this engaging and delightful mash-up of kids' music with their trademark jazz and funk. With a mix of originals and covers (and the Johnny Cash reworking in the title track somewhere in the middle), the band has balanced the complexity of skilled jazz players with the simplicity necessary to grab kids' attention. Recorded in just four days, the travel-themed record has a sense of improvisation and immediacy you don't often find in music for kids.

Various Artists: Hawaiian Playground: With ten tracks from and about Hawaii, Hawaiian Playground provides a sunny treat in the dead of winter. From The Moonlighters' harmonies and ukelele on "Right On" to Joe McDermott pining for the islands on "Come to Hawaii" to native Hawaiians Ehukai and Imua, the CD gives a real sense for the multitude of musical styles in Hawaii while also being a cohesive - and fun! - whole.

The Jellydots: Changing Skies: The Jellydots' Hey You Kids was one of the best family CDs of 2006, and Changing Skies, while a bit of a departure, is well worth checking out too. Singer and songwriter Doug Snyder has definitely skewed a bit older - some of the songs (especially "Art School Girl" and "Remember Me") are aimed much more at the tweener or teenage sets - but the real genius of the record is that it's got something for every member of the family, without making any of them feel pandered to.

Brady Rymer - Here Comes Brady Rymer and the Little Band that Could: Brady Rymer (formerly of the grown-up band From Good Homes) has put together his best-yet record of friendly and loose, but never sloppy, kid roots rock. Featuring a number of performers from Bruce Springsteen's Seeger Sessions along with Rymer's long-standing band, it's the perfect soundtrack to a sunny weekend, or a cold and cloudy weekend when you wish it were sunny.

Bill Childs is a law professor in western Massachusetts. He and his eight-year-old daughter produce a kids' music radio show, "Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child," weekly Contact him and tell him other artists he should know about.