Ella Jenkins

Those of us who aren’t around children every day may forget the pleasures of participating in (and learning) simple songs. Jenkins and special guests, including students from the LaSalle Language Academy of Chicago, provide a remedy as warm and welcoming as your favorite auntie while introducing songs and concepts from a variety of different cultures. Jenkins and kids trade verses on “Where Is Mary?” a call-and-response number that repeats every English verse in Spanish. The kids themselves sing “The Song of Seven Continents,” listing the great land masses to the tune of “Frère Jacques.” Other cuts take listeners to Ireland (“In Dublin’s Fair City”) and Turkey (“Üsküdara”) or explore minority cultures here in America (“Native American Tribes” and “I’m on My Way to Canaan Land”).