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    The Wondarium started with a dream. I dreamed I was combing the beach for shells with my friend Alfred then a message came through the air from his wife Sarah. She said, "The Hippopotamus says bring her back some treasures."

    The next morning, I told my dream to Alfred over the telephone who later sent a chorus to me about Hippo. But before I'd heard his chorus, I'd written two verses about her as well. Once I listened to his chorus, I realized that my verses fit in with the rhythm of what he'd already written.

    Alfred and I call this ESP (extrasensory perception) songwriting. We write a lot of songs this way. Once we realized that both of us enjoyed making up songs that would suit children, we wrote another and another and another. We didn't think about them in a methodical way; they just dropped into our minds over the course of about a year.

    What makes these songs particularly for kids? Well there's something free about them, something nonsensical, and something playful. These are things which I always loved in songs I heard on Sesame Street or on Pete Seeger records.

    Not all adults are open to a song about the virtues of string, whereas kids seem to understand. But I was pleased to meet an adult after the first public performance of these songs who said, "I know you wrote that string song for kids, but I like it too." Perfect.

    Songs for kids, songs for free thinkers, songs for nonsense-lovers, songs for socks, songs for bears, boats, beans, and hippos.

    Come one, come all. Take your chances in The Wondarium.

    Includes unlimited streaming of The Wondarium: Songs For Kids via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.     ... more
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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of String Unraveller Demo May 2021, The American Dream (Harlis and Freda), Voice Memo Demo, I'm Letting Go of You – Kitchen Single, The Wondarium: Songs For Kids, A Body is a Delicate House, I Fell Into the Fire, The Loneliest Snowman, I Fell Into The Fire – Limited Edition Handprinted, and 18 more. , and , .

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about

My friend Roger told me about his sister who was born premature. She was so small that they had to pin her handkerchief-sized dress to a pillow, so that she would stay put. She grew up in a coal camp house in Appalachia and slept in the bottom drawer of the bureau. She grew up to be tall and strong, but Roger was impatient for her to grow faster because he wanted a sibling to run and play with him.

lyrics

Sister Rosie

Sister Rosie born much too small –
much to small and that is all.
A sack of sugar weighed more than Rose –
more than Rose in her winter clothes.

One flake of soap and a cup of water
made a bath for baby daughter.
Her nose no bigger than a black-eyed pea.
Ro-oh-ose, hurry up and grow.

Daddy’s hankie made Rose a dress –
made a dress for our princess.
Pinned her dress to a pillow soft –
a pillow soft, in case Rose rolled off.

Rosie slept in a bureau drawer –
in a bureau drawer.
where Daddy’s hankies were
A thimble of sugar will help her grow.
Won’t you grow, Sister Rose?

Rosie’s tears just dewdrop sized.
Dewdrop cries from button eyes.
Sister Rosie born much too small –
much to small and that is all.

credits

from The Wondarium: Songs For Kids, released December 13, 2022
Music and Lyrics by Jeni Hankins, Lulu Wall Music, BMI,
Alfred John Hickling, Sweet Pea Music,
and Billy Kemp, Willbilly Music, BMI.

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Jeni Hankins London, UK

Jeni Hankins grew up in the coalfields of Appalachian in Southwest Virginia among a family of miners, moonshiners, and journalists. Her writing pulls the grit, gumption, and keen sense of observation out of that heritage like drawing water from her grandmother’s well.

In every song, Jeni’s “true sense of place shines through – old as the hills, but brand new at the same time.” ... more

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