Warmth and Whimsy ‘Completely’ for Kids : Paula Poundstone pulls together a group of celebrities for children’s album.

When comedian Paula Poundstone was asked by Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club Vice President David Allender if she’d record children’s books on tape, Poundstone, a foster mother to three young children--two of whom she recently adopted--chose “A Mother for Choco.” Written by Keiko Kasza, it’s about a little orphaned bird who’s eventually taken in by a loving Mama Bear.

“I got turned on to it at a seminar for foster parenting,” Poundstone said, “and my kids like it. It really speaks to our lives in a lot of ways.”

The project took on another dimension when Poundstone, who asserts that she was “highly inadequate” to do the book alone, asked Kathy Najimy, Lily Tomlin, Bea Arthur and Mary Tyler Moore to join her in performing the story.

(“Paula did a wonderful job,” Allender said. “Pulling in other people was an added bonus.”)

Ed Asner also came on board, and the warm hug of an album, called “Completely Yours,” has just been released, the first Children’s Book-of-the-Month recording to be made available to retailers.

In addition to Kasza’s story, it features songs and nursery rhymes. A few highlights: Asner doing “Little Boy Blue,” Tomlin’s “Eency Weency Spider” and Arthur’s unforgettable “Little Bo Peep.” “It’s a tear-jerker, I’m telling you,” Poundstone said, laughing.

It’s not celebrity flash for its own sake: The performers’ fees and royalties benefit the Westside Children’s Center in Culver City.

“When we got to thinking about the notion of casting it,” Poundstone said, “I did this thing, it was a real ‘Leave It to Beaver’ thing, [in which] I sort of said to David, ‘Well, I think I could get so-and-so and so-and-so to do it.’ The next day, I was just kicking myself, I was like, why do I say junk like that?”

Poundstone took a shot anyway and sent Kasza’s book and a letter to Tomlin, Najimy, Arthur and Moore, who, to her surprise, all responded that same week. They ended up playing Mrs. Penguin, Mrs. Giraffe, Mrs. Walrus and Mrs. Bear, respectively, in the story. Poundstone narrates and plays the orphaned Choco.

Allender added the eclectic collection of playful nursery rhymes to the mix, and the recording was rounded out with “Just the Same,” sung by Margaret Bailey, and Rachel Peer’s lullaby “Dreamland.”

The result is a celebrity recording done with enough warmth and whimsy to appeal to children too young to know who the celebrities are, something that can’t be said for all such ventures.

Poundstone’s trademark wry observations of life’s absurdities--and of her cats’ quirks--can be found regularly in her stand-up performances or in guest appearances on shows from “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” to Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion.” She’s also serving as “Roving Reporter” on the “Rosie O’Donnell Show,” is the voice of “Judge Stone” on ABC’s Saturday morning animated “Science Court” series and is scheduled to do a sitcom pilot for the Fox network next fall.

To learn what her central occupation is, however, all you have to do is talk to Poundstone on the phone. The conversation is of a type recognizable to any preschooler’s parent: intermittent.

“You don’t really have conversations, you have sound bites,” Poundstone said, as she administered cautions, humor and soothing comfort in parental asides as necessary. At one point, a sudden crash indicated that holiday excitement had proved fatal to a Christmas ornament--”It was a really good one. It was the pumpkin coach one,” Poundstone surreptitiously reported after she had reassured the contrite perpetrator.

Poundstone, who became a foster mother almost five years ago, adopted her two daughters officially this month. Her foster son is a recent addition to the family.

How does she manage?

“We have eight cats. Thank goodness, because they’ve pretty much written my act. I really rely on them now that the brains have been sucked out of my head and I can’t think of things to say anymore.”

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“Completely Yours,” Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club, CD, $7.95; cassette, $5.95. Locally at Children’s Book World, 10580 1/2 W. Pico Blvd., (310) 559-2665. To hear a recorded preview of the album, call Book Talk, (818) 788-9722, Ext. 3444.