MERCURIAL KID

Okay, as an enormous and longtime fan of U2 and of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, I owned this version long before I had the Bean. And I listened to it, along with the poetry CDs whose existence at all now seems inspired by the very idea that a child might listen to them (Dylan Thomas' warbling tenor is a sensory experience unto itself). But Prokofiev's master work is a children's tale, and while I thought it beautifully executed before, playing it for the Bean shows me how important it is to listen to it with a wee one. Bono conceived this version with his daughters Jordan and Eve and, of course, with pal Gavin Friday of Virgin Prunes fame. It's Friday who narrates the tale. I have listened to the soundtrack without the book and vice versa. Both ways are great; Bono's drawings emphasize how modern the story actually is, how elegant the sensibility of it.