reviewed by Nicholas T.

THERE are good records around for children this year, and it is certainly worth getting not always very willing record shops to find some of them. For example, there is Babar the Elephante ALP 2286, narrated by Peter Ustin, against a dark, evocative score by Francis Poulenc. The death of Babar's mother is heavily underlined, so be warned, and Babar's more cheerful adventure in a shop lift is disappointingly omitted.

The same mixture of prose and music can also be recommended in any version of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale, and in Britten's superb Noye's Fluddle, NF 1, with all the extraordinary natural effects he gets from a small orchestra. There is also some interesting music in the story of the Magic Toyshop, SOC 1055, base on "La Boutique Fantasque," and elsewhere in the same company's Goldilocks, SOC 1053, the story is interspersed with extracts from Mendelssohn and the Nutcracker Suite. Some of these excerpts are irritatingly short, though, and occasionally used just for sentimental effect rather like those dear old Hollywood films that always seemed to end on a blare from Tchaikovsky's Fifth. Even so, it is one way of giving younger children an introduction to longer classical works, which can always be tried out in their entirety soon afterwards.

Back with infants, Christopher Casson works busily on his Gaelic harp and recorder to present a nice Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, SA 857. Elsewhere he helps to narrate some of Grimm's Fairy Tales, SA 846, and a Treasury of English Fairy Tales, SA 920, in a pleasantly lilting and wide-eyed delivery, as if perpetually astonished at the background noises going on around him.

In 1975, includes slightly less distant favourites such as "The Teddy Bears' Picnic," enthusiastically sung by Jon Pertwee and Jessie Matthews, although slightly marred by the latter's occasional inability to hit a top note. There is also a treacle-well of sentiment on this record's version of "Christopher Robin is saying his prayers," which certainly caused at least one parent to make quickly for the door.

Another possible clash in tastes is provided, by two long versions of Alice in Wonderland. The Argo recording, ZRG 5146-7, well spoken by Jane Asher and a good supporting cast, scrupulously follows the text with the minimum interference from music, sound effects, or any other external diversions. On the other hand, Music for Pleasure, MFP 1267-8, presents what sounds like a cross between a traditional pantomime and a television spectacular, full of additional material, loud songs, and schmalzy choruses, all put across with abundant rude energy. Alas, my own children, and probably many others too, much prefer this last version, and the Argo recording will have to be saved for age and maturity.

Rude, in a different way, are parts of Streets of Song, 12T41, some childhood memories spoken and sung by Ewan MacColl and Dominic Behan. Some of these are very entertaining, but the street songs and games tend to get smothered by the reminiscences in between, and lack the traffic and noise and piping young voices that give such

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