River Song: With the Banana Slug String Band

River Song is the new children’s picture book from Steve Van Zandt, lead songwriter for acclaimed Santa Cruz-based, eco-friendly, kids’-music group the Banana Slug String Band. Van Zandt, who is also an award-winning environmental educator, joins up with Snohomish, Wash., illustrator Katherine Zecca in this 32-page, colorfully illustrated book about the life of a river from source to sea: “It happened one day on the mountain so high A river was born from out of the sky … ” The book’s words are the lyrics of the “River Song,” performed by the Slugs on the accompanying CD. There’s even a page of sheet music at the back of the book for those who’d like to play along, and also a small glossary of river-related terms. One complaint: The verb “riffles” (“Over flat colored stones it riffles along”) is pronounced “rifles” on the CD. Fairly inexcusable as this book/CD is meant as an educational tool.