Classic tunes and tales, and one about bad hair

Peter and the Wolf

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

CD: $15; For the family

www.fwsymphony.org.

Conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, well known to local classical music audiences as the former associate director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, leads his Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and pianists Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung in a vivid performance of Prokofiev’s classic. An added plus: Michael York tells the tale in English; Harth-Bedoya supplies the narration in Spanish. Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals,” narrated by York, rounds out the album.

*

This Is Daniel Cook. Here We Are!

The Children’s Group

CD: $15.99; Ages 3 to 7

www.childrensgroup.com

The CD, inspired by the live-action preschool series “This Is Daniel Cook,” is a playful, eclectic mix of familiar and original songs. Among the splendidly produced tracks: “Old MacDonald,” “Shortnin’ Bread,” “Puff the Magic Dragon” and nursery rhymes, blending in nicely with “The Bowling Song,” a zydeco “Little Red Caboose,” an Elvis Presley-ish “Chocolate Cake” and Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies in a duet with the TV show’s child host, Daniel.

*

Mr. Bach Comes to Call

The Children’s Group

DVD: $19.98; Ages 7 to 12www.childrensgroup.com

The Children’s Group is known for spotlighting famous composers through child-centric adventures in the critically acclaimed “Classical Kids” CD series and “Beethoven Lives Upstairs” film. The Canadian company revisits its winning formula in this engaging new DVD based on the life and times of Johann Sebastian Bach. The composer appears at the home of a present-day young girl who’s unhappily practicing his Minuet in G. Her interest in classical music is kindled as Bach (Mark McKenna) shares his history and the joy he felt when he lived and breathed music. The narrative is punctuated with excerpts of works performed by the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and the Bach Festival Orchestra.

*

A Treasure in My Garden

The Secret Mountain

DVD: $14.95. With hardcover

book: $16.95

Ages 2 to 8

www.thesecretmountain.com

A feast of quirky, gentle-spirited songs and narratives by singer and poet Gilles Vigneault, rendered in colorful, idiosyncratic animation styles. A little girl plants lightbulbs and returns to her garden as an adult to find a lamppost growing there. “Boxes” takes a roller-coaster ride through the cycle of life. A little girl and her father indulge her teddy bear’s thirst for adventure. A dreaming child takes flight. Lovely.

Crazy Hair Day

Inkless Music

CD: $14.98; Ages 4 to 8

(800) 6CRAIG8

www.craignco.com

Children’s author-illustrator and singer-songwriter Barney Saltzberg’s new CD features a cornucopia of guest artists crooning kid-celebrating songs with folk, pop and country acoustic rhythms. The roster includes Jackson Browne, Peter Himmelman, Vonda Shepard, Jessica Harper, guitarist Richard Thompson -- and Dustin Hoffman, who reads the CD’s inspiration: Saltzberg’s heartfelt, humorous book about a kid’s bad hair day that turns into an exercise in creativity and caring solidarity. Artist royalties will be donated to the Concern Foundation for cancer research into child and young adult cancers.