You know what to expect as soon as you lay eyes on the brightly colored, hand-drawn look of the album cover, and when you flip open the CD, those first impressions are reinforced with a picture of the band riding on a trolley and wielding acoustic guitars, fiddles, ukuleles, and wide open smiles. A few inches to the right, and you’re looking at liner notes that include instrumental credits for bottles, jawharp, kalimba, kazoo, harmonium, and some truly weird stuff, like balloon and veggie baster. You get the picture, right? This here’s a back porch kindie jamboree.

Which is all well and good, but all the fingerpicking and fiddling in the world can’t cover up for crummy songs; happily, Rani Arbo and Daisy Mayhem have lined up a towering stack of venerable standards (such as “The Green Grass Grows All Around”) and clever covers (The Meters’ “They All Ask’d for You,” John Gorka’s “Branching Out,” Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers,” Renee & Jeremy’s “It’s a Big World”) to go with more obviously kid-friendly fare (“If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” “Purple People Eater”). The arrangements are solid, the playing is impeccable, the production is clear and warm, and the vocals beam in like sunshine on a spring afternoon. What else can I say? I love this album, and I think you — and I guess more importantly, your kids — will love it too. But don’t just take my word for it — hear some samples here. (Then go buy the darn thing.)

Still, it’s hard to argue with anyone who wants to build a jazz gateway for kids, especially when they give it a name as clever as the Coal Train Railroad (say it out loud), or when they kick off the album by asking “what makes that coal train go?” Running the jazz (and jazz-ish) spectrum from jump blues to torch ballads, Coal Train Railroad puts singer Katy Bowser’s supple vocals in front of a crack combo and some smart, easy-to-digest arrangements. Think of it as sort of a jazzy audio equivalent of Bugsy Malone; when she slows down the tempo, Bowser croons like Linda Ronstadt on her Nelson Riddle records, but instead of looking for someone to watch over her, she’s looking for a nap.

It’s fun, well-made stuff. And if it mostly just leaves you wanting to listen to some Brubeck, Jobim, or Ella, then I suppose that’s sort of the point, right?

I digress. Here’s what I’m trying to say: There might be bands making music for kids that’s funkier, more soulful, and more fun than the Sugar Free Allstars, but if there are, I’m not aware of them — and what’s more, the band makes music for adults, too.

The duo, made up of Chris Wiser (organ, vocals) and Rob “Dr. Rock” Martin (drums), isn’t shy about augmenting its sound in the studio — you’ll hear brass, keys, percussion, and guitar on their albums (Little Feat’s Fred Tackett even pops up on their second grown-up record, Return of Dos Machos) — but the most important components of each song are Wiser’s organ and Martin’s drums, and even though you’ll never mistake the Sugar Free Allstars for, say, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, they still offer quite a welcome respite from the glossy, compressed pop music that rules the airwaves.

That sound, coupled with Wiser’s way with a tongue-in-cheek lyric, make the Allstars perfect for kids, something demonstrated by their two forays into the kindie market, the eight-song CD Dos Niños and the recently released DVD Gettin’ Funky with the Sugar Free Allstars. Though their recordings are certainly professionally recorded, the band is decidedly indie; in other words, you shouldn’t expect dazzling production values from Gettin’ Funky, nor should you look for voluminous liner notes or award-winning artwork from their CDs. But what they lack in eye candy, they more than make up for in fun; like a funkier They Might Be Giants, the Sugar Free Allstars are a band that can please the kids in the audience while making honest-to-goodness fans out of their parents. Start gettin’ funky with them today.

1. The name of the band is the Bramble Jam, which is the coolest. Just the coolest.

2. The title of the album is Move Your Boots. See #1.

3. The band photo on the inside sleeve shows the members of Bramble Jam holding three acoustic guitars, a stand-up bass, and a pair of drumsticks.

The only question you should have at this point is whether or not the music on the album is cool enough to live up to everything I’ve just described, and the answer is a resounding “yes.” Move Your Boots is one of the most effortlessly charming kids’ records I’ve heard in a really long time, with beautifully crisp production and perfectly stripped-down arrangements to go with the band’s rootsy instrumentation and songs about stuff you might remember from your own childhood — like splashing in puddles, dancing like a goofball, arguing with your siblings, wondering why Mom’s so upset about your messy room, Dad’s pancakes, and squishing bugs. None of these are particularly groundbreaking topics for a children’s album, but it isn’t often that they’re addressed with such a refreshing lack of artifice; quite often, Boots has the feel of a back porch jam that just sort of happened to wander into kindie territory. What else can I tell you that really matters? It’s wonderful, just wonderful.

As you’d expect from an album credited to Joanie Leeds and the Nightlights, I’m a Rock Star will get the most mileage from younger listeners, but what sets Leeds apart from the pack is her way with a killer pop hook — songs like “Put a Smile on Your Face” are great for kids, but more importantly, they’re just plain catchy — as well as the sense of humor that makes silly cuts like “I Was an Elf” worth repeat listens. And then there’s “Give Me a Hug,” which is a bona fide pop jewel. Like a lot of kindie performers, Leeds tried her hand at adult pop before migrating youthward, but unlike many of her peers, she never comes across as condescending; you get the sense she’s just a songwriter who loves kids, and that — along with her relative restraint when it comes to sugar-frosting her uptempo numbers with unnecessary silliness — makes Rock Star worth a spin for the whole family.

The end result ain’t exactly Joan Jett, but if you’re a parent who’s spent any time at all trying to find music that’s aimed at your young children and isn’t barf-inducingly patronizing, you know it’s the little victories that count. And you can count Bari Koral and the Family Rock Band among the good guys: This is very kid-friendly, eminently danceable stuff, with the focus squarely on fun (listen to the mildly subversive “Backpack,” pretty much a laundry list of things parents don’t want going in there) instead of well-meaning attempts to teach listeners shapes or how to count. At 28 minutes, it’s good for family car rides and living room dance parties, and you can never have enough music for either of those, right?

The Nickelodeon series has been on the air nearly a year now and it’s a big hit for the network. So, in true fashion of the marketing savvy network, Nickelodeon has released Operation: DVD Premiere, the first “feature length” DVD with over two hours of entertainment. The DVD is a collection of some of the Penguins best adventures, as well as a brand new, never-before-seen special, “Dr. Blowhole’s Revenge,” and two never- before-seen episodes, “Truth Ache” and “Command Crisis.” On a side note, I know that Nick plans to air “Dr. Blowhole’s Revenge” on President’s Day. I don’t understand the logic in advertising something as “never-before-seen” for just one week before putting in on television. I digress.

The set up for the show is simple: The Penguins, that is Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private, are back living at the New York City Zoo. Even though they are residents in the zoo, that doesn’t mean they’re confined behind bars. Instead, they have plenty of crazy adventures within the zoo and outside it. Along for the fun are three characters they never lived in the zoo in the films: King Julien, the insane lemur, originally voiced by Sacha Baren Cohen, by on television capably handled by Danny Jacobs, Maurice, an aye aye who is Julien’s trusty servant, and Mort, the accident mouse lemur who is the brunt of Julien’s contempt.

Supporting characters on hand to fill the absence of the main Madagascar characters include Marlene, an otter whose character is solely new to the series, plus Mason and Phil, the two chimpanzees from the films.

“Dr. Blowhole’s Revenge” is a funny, “save the world” adventure that finds the Penguins pitted against the evil Dr. Blowhole, an angry dolphin who gets around on a Segway. Dr. Blowhole plans to melt the North Pole in order to flood the earth as payback to humans for making him perform tricks in a ring of fire. Making matters worse for the Penguins is the fact that Julien has teamed up with Blowhole. The nefarious Blowhole is voiced by guest-star Neil Patrick Harris (who seems to be everywhere these days) and he has a good time with the role. Like most animation being produced these days, the adult behind the creation of the show often slip in a little bit of safe grown-up humor to make the show enjoyable for parents, as well as their kids.

The other two episodes, “Truth Ache” and “Command Crisis” fit right in with the seven other episodes included on this DVD, all of which have previously aired on Nickelodeon. As for bonus features, they aren’t much. But you shouldn’t expect too much when you’re buying TV episodes on a single disc like this one, anyway. There are trailers for upcoming Dreamworks animated features, Nick animated show and a couple of online games. Like I said, it isn’t much. Still, if you have a Penguin or King Julien fan in your house (child or adult) then this DVD is a worthwhile investment.

Again, this isn’t a matter of the subject material being over the little ones’ heads; Rise and Shine’s songs deal with topics including pets, trucks, space travel, counting, and something called peekapoo. But Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke don’t pander with their arrangements, which are stripped-down, folk-flavored, and often totally rockin’ in the bargain — not to mention catchy, too. Rise and Shine is the kind of record you could listen to two or three times without realizing it was made with kids in mind.

Which is not to say the album lacks kid appeal; quite the contrary, as Rise and Shine is not only packed with ready-made favorites for the younger set (“Rattling Can,” which uses a brilliant, progressively lengthening “Old McDonald’s”-style chorus to describe the order of the universe, is at the top of my daughter’s list), but it comes bundled with a board book that illustrates many of the songs’ stories. The end result, as I can personally attest, is that your little ones will spend half an hour flipping through the book, completely mesmerized, while Key Wilde and Mr. Clarke entertain the whole family. Don’t go looking for Laurie Berkner levels of cuteness, but if your kids like a little genuine rock & roll in their musical diet, Rise and Shine is one to look for.

Still, the Ensemble has its heart squarely in the right place, and what it might lack in old-fashioned songcraft, the album makes up for with the sort of raw, homespun feel that’s been all too absent from kids’ music since Garcia and Grisman were in the studio recording Not for Kids Only. And for families interested in teaching their children about things like composting and gardening, it’s hard to argue with tracks like “That’s What the Earthworm’s For” and “Corn.” Children’s records don’t get much timelier, or more well-meaning, than this.