EDITOR'S PICK:

PigMania and GoldiRocks
Judy & David (The Children's Group)

While these two dazzling albums, the inaugural releases in a series called Once Upon A Time, proclaim themselves "a new spin" on classic fairy tales - "The Three Little Pigs" and "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," respectively - they're being too modest. The sensational husband-wife duo Judy & David, Toronto inhabitants whose last release won the Juno Award (the Canadian Grammy) for best children's album, ring such wildly creative changes that their source material is transmogrified. The pair's hip, frequently hilarious reimagining of these exceedingly familiar tales -- using a variety of character voices, and mixing story with first-rate original music - gives them a new lease on life. In PigMania, the porcine troika is composed of siblings, of course, but the bricklaying piggy's a girl, brainy Brainella. Her brothers are surfer-talking Frankie, the straw aficionado, and lovably dim Woody, the stick man. (Brainella: "I have been contemplating our situation, and I have now determined that the best course of action would be to begin the immediate execution of the construction of our respective habitations." Woody: "Uh, what'd she say, Frankie?" Frankie: "Like, we should build our houses, dude.") Their encounter with the sinister-hipster Big Bad Wolf changes their lives for the better, of course, and even effects a conversion of the wolf. he goes on to write a tofu cookbook. Throughout, Judy & David's infectious pop-rock tunes and ballads keep the action snapping along. In GoldiRocks, the titular gal's a fanatic rock'n'roll guitarist, whose perpetual power-chording keeps the neighbors awake and her family in despair. Leaving home in a nobody-understands-me huff, she drops in on the Three Bears, who as we all know are out for a walk, and proceeds to wreak havoc with their furnishings and food. Here, Judy & David employ a wide variety of musical styles, including Chuck Berry-style rock'n'roll, country, calypso, light opera - and even Klezmer, in Goldi's violin-spiced ode to porridge. Naturally, she learns her lesson too, aided by a new character, a loquacious, Oxbridge-sounding owl. Not the least of the pleasures here is seeing how these well-worn stories benefit from the addition of strong female characters. There are laughs at every turn, and it's humor that works on multiple levels, from preschool to parental, and even preteen. With PigMania and GoldiRocks, Judy & David have concocted their own classics.