Music: Kidiscography, 1960

Trade once followed the flag; nowadays it trails the cradle. One result: more children's records every year. Among the relatively few good ones on the market:

Mother Goose (Cyril Ritchard, Celeste Holm, Boris Karloff; Caedmon). Arch without being cute, this trio skips through the old rhymes like verbal jump ropes. In gleeful self-amazement, Actor Ritchard triple-tongues Peter Piper's pickled peppers ("I didn't break down, you see"). Hershy Kay's musical punctuation is pert and pertinent, unfailingly delights, never intrudes.

Richard Wagner: His Story and His Music (Vox). This is a handsome way for a...