Keb’ Mo’s ‘Big Wide Grin’ Smiles on Ageless Songs

Audio

Keb’ Mo’: “Big Wide Grin.” Epic Records/Sony Wonder. CD:$17; cassette: $10. For the family.

Singer-guitarist Keb’ Mo’, two-time Grammy Award winner for best contemporary blues album (1996’s “Just Like You” and 1998’s “Slow Down”), reaches out to all ages in this loving embrace of an album, beautifully performed by the artist and a slew of amazing jazz and blues musicians and singers. Keb’ Mo’s soulful, resonant interpretations weave such songs as the O’Jays’ “Love Train,” Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” and Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” into an uplifting illumination of childhood uncertainties and joys, teenage concerns, marriage, matters of the heart and home.

In “Don’t Say No,” co-written by Keb’ and Cynthia Tarr, the message is “Leave your doubts behind, strength is what you’ll find and love will never let you go.” A gleeful rendition of “The Flat Foot Floogie” adds a playful note.

Other tracks are breathtaking tributes to the abiding love of family: “Grandma’s Hands” celebrates what unconditional comfort and support means to a child (“when I get to heaven, I’ll look for--Grandma’s hands”); “Color Him Father,” is a child’s tender assessment of a man who’s good, kind and hard-working (“I’ll need his strength till the day that I die”); and “I Am Your Mother, Too,” sung with guest vocalist Brenda Russell, is caressing reassurance for a young adopted child (“Your sweet young mother trusted us with you/We promised her that we will do/Every little thing for you ... Life is your sister/And love is your brother/And we are your family, too.”)

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“The Little Prince.” Pocket Audio. CD: $17. Bookstores and, https://www.amazon.com. All ages.

Richard Gere and Haley Joel Osment head the cast in a glossy new abridged audio version of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s poignant classic about a pilot, downed in the Sahara, and his life-changing encounter with a mysterious, achingly innocent and wise little space traveler.

With evocative musical accents and sound effects, and Gere’s thoughtful, layered performance, it’s a pleasant telling, even when Osment’s earnest rendering of the title character reflects more skill than depth. If you can get your hands on it, nothing matches the original 1974 Grammy Award-winning, unabridged recording (rereleased in 1993 by Music for Little People, but now discontinued), with Richard Burton’s memorable pilot and 8-year-old Billy Simpson’s haunting, fully realized performance as the Little Prince.

“The Transmogrification of Roscoe Wizzle.” Listening Library/Random House Audio Publishing Group. CD: $28; cassette: $18. 1 hour, 38 minutes. Ages 7 and up. https://www.listeninglibrary.com. (800) 243-4504, Ext. 1.

Shades of Kafka. One day, 10-year-old Roscoe Wizzle realizes that he’s turning into a giant bug. This unabridged performance of David Elliott’s delightfully zany-scary flight of fancy involves “Gussie Gorilla” burgers with a significant secret ingredient, mysterious disappearances, a Dickensian orphanage, truly creepy insects, and a septuagenarian bookkeeper-martial artist with a yen to travel.

It gently spoofs pompous teachers, anthropologists, child psychologists, preoccupied parents, fast-food junkies and the power of advertising--and deftly weaves vocabulary lessons into the tale.

Actor David Krumholtz’s performance in this first-person romp is pitch-perfect, offering just the right touch of wide-eyed surprise and earnestness to make the most fantastic occurrences seem believable.

Video

“Kipper: Pools, Parks and Picnics.” Lyrick Studios. 60 minutes. $9.99. Ages 2 to 6.

“Kipper,” the gentle Nick Jr. animated series about a playful pup and pals Tiger the terrier and Pig and his baby brother Arnold, is now a video series, with seven cozy episodes on each hourlong title.

Based on author-illustrator Mick Inkpen’s books, the simple stories bloom with soft watercolor animation and British-accented charm. Each plot in this first of two new releases--a lost sippy cup, sailing a boat on a pond, splashing in a pool, trying to have a quiet picnic, looking at tiny insects through a looking glass--is an occasion for quiet humor and unspoken messages about friendship, solving problems and using one’s imagination. The second new title in this special series is “Kipper: Tiger Tales.”