CAN A JUMBO JET SING THE ALPHABET? is excellent for preschool through second graders. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" uses baseball scores to practice number values, while "Round the World with Ways to say Hello," "Please and Thank You," and "Good-Bye My Friends" teach phrases in French, Arabic, Korean, and Hindi. "What Could You Use" is a song asking questions for children to answer: When there's a storm, what tool could you use to catch the drops and dry the floor?

The 60-minute CD comes with a booklet full of lyrics and suggestions for follow-up activities. The alphabet is taught through movement in "Alphabet in Motion" and rhyme in "Can a Jumbo Jet Sing the Alphabet?" The letters P and L are put together in "Letters in a Blender" to make "plunger, plumber, and platypus." Shapes are experienced in "The Shapes That Surround You" and "Jig Along Shapes." Body awareness is explored in "Everybody Dance" and "The Bean Bag." A little biology is tossed in with "The Compost Bin," a jazzy swing piano piece that describes the magic when "the microbes eat the waste within." The 60-minute CD comes with a booklet full of lyrics and suggestions for follow-up activities.

The production values are high; musicianship is topnotch. Instrumentation includes guitars, piano, horns, steel drums, banjo, and woodwinds. Hap Palmer, a children's chorus, and other singers deliver musical styles ranging from polka to Irish jig, Cajun, rap, and rock. As a CD for repeated playing, this would probably wear out most parents' patience, but as a teaching tool for the intended audience, it's right on target.