Looking for a kids’ music album that inspires kids to find creative solutions to challenges big and small? To grow their emotional skills and be allies to others? To sing joyously about a nonbinary best friend? Here’s just the thing—the third full-length music album from children’s music group Ants on a Log.
Ants Julie Be and Anya Rose (who are also a music therapist and an elementary school science teacher, respectively), combine catchy melodies and rhythms with lyrics that are fun, clever, and sometimes surprisingly powerful. The titular “Make It Myself” encourages kids to think about what they can create for themselves rather than buy premade. It’s a terrific song for inspiring young makers and creators, and features Laura Foxx on sax and clarinet. (And if you want more content about young makers, check out Something Great, a wonderful picture book starring a young, nonbinary maker.)
“They’re My Best Friend” is the first song on national radio with all nonbinary pronouns, according to Julie. It’s a sweet song in which a friend’s nonbinary identity is just a part of who they are, and seamlessly accepted. Longtime Mombian readers and Ants fans may recognize it from the Trans and Nonbinary Kids Mix album that Julie, who is nonbinary themself, created during the pandemic, bringing together 21 songs from a variety of musicians and genres. (Here’s my interview with them about it.) “They’re My Best Friend,” the Ants’ contribution to that effort, makes a remixed reappearance here. (If you like it, you may also like another song of theirs about gender, “Some Girls Have Short Hair,” from their previous album, You Could Draw the Album Art.)
The other songs on Make It Myself highlight a variety of other themes:
- “Waiting in Line” keeps the creativity going with ideas for how to keep oneself entertained when things are taking a while.
- “When We Get There” helps listeners deal with impatience.
- “What Book?” reminds us to ask girls not just about their looks, but also about the things they do with their brains, like read.
- “King Midas” reveals that this monarch’s true passion wasn’t gold, but cheese. Let’s not judge people just by the stories about them!
- “Had to Stand Up” gives us the perspective of a White child deciding to take action when a Black boy is being bullied on the playground. It comes with a free anti-racism discussion guide.
- “I’m Not a Christmas Celebrator” is a call to respect and include the many different holidays that people celebrate, even Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.
- “Biggest Bite” is a mealtime appreciation song!
- “The EPA Song” is perhaps the only song about the Environmental Protection Agency and why we need it, but heck, there was a whole musical about a secretary of the Treasury, so….
- “Cuddle” teaches children both to be loving and to ask for consent.
- “Mosquito Lullaby” puts listeners in the role of a parent and child mosquito, with amusing results.
- “Dog of My Dreams” combines dogs, bikes, and pickles. Who can argue with that?
- “Charlotte’s Boring Bedtime Song” offers a child’s advice on how we adults can wind things down in the evenings.
The album marks Julie’s debut as an audio producer, and they share co-production credit with Grammy Award winner Dean Jones. Both fun and with a strong sense of inclusion and social justice, it’s bound to find many fans of all ages.
