The song titles are the first clue: “Hats on Bees,” “Exceptional Piece of Toast,” “Don't Needle Me.” No, this isn't your everyday children's music. Singer-songwriter Nancy Tucker is an offbeat original, a fizzy, funny, witty delight whose notably expressive acoustic guitar is the perfect complement to her imagination-stretching, pun-happy, tongue-twisting lyrics.

A sampling: “Hats on bees, shoes on trees, white gloves on flamboyant fleas...it's hard to find a girdle for a worm.” In “Be the Best Bee,” a wise queen bee delivers encouragement to the troops, “a frolicking frenzy of bees.” Insomniacs can forget counting sheep. In “Flying Toes” the count is “1 kangaroo mouse, 1 chirping bird house, 1 carrot with fairy-like wings, 1 dragonfly sneeze, 1 chattering breeze...”

Even Tucker's “Laffy Dullabye” starts out oh-so-soothingly, then takes a comically skewed turn, and it's Mom who succumbs. And in one track that's bound to be a favorite, “Frank Stein” is a monster kid who needs his “mummy” to assuage his bedtime fears: “There might be children under my bed...!” Wonderful, creative fun for ears of all ages.