Picture This Sing-A-Long: At the Zoo

If I decide to buy a security system, I won't get a motion-detector light set or a wrought-iron spiked fence; nope, I want a meerkat. For sheer espresso-wired vigilance, you just can't beat these South African relatives of the mongoose, who stand on their hind legs and could probably signal the approach of a door-to-door solicitor from 100 yards easy. Along with meerkats, the animals featured in this sing-a-long, filmed at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois, include monkeys, aardvarks ("they dig for 90,000 ants...for dinner"), sea lions, dolphins, polar bears, elephants, giraffes, zebras, and exotic birds. The songs by two-time Emmy-award winning Mitran Mitran Music are bouncy and informative, if not particularly clever or memorable. But the nice animal footage is the main draw here. Other titles in the series include: On the Farm and In Your Neighborhood. Recommended for pre-schoolers and early elementary children. (R. Pitman)