IT’S A DOG’S LIFE
By Jesse Sherer
Baldwinite’s new children’s book aims to win over kids and animal lovers alike.
Diane Corrado spent much of her childhood surrounded by the world of music and performing arts. After moving to Baldwin with her family at the age of 5, she took ballet lessons, tap classes, and voice training to refine her artistic gifts. The lessons worked, as she spent much of her free time on stage singing, dancing and acting while a student at Baldwin Senior High School.
Today, this mother of two has expanded her audience, singing for children and animal lovers. She is the president of Kidz Entertainment, Inc., and the creator and the voice behind “Show Dogs”, a compilation of music, art, and reading for young children and animal lovers alike. “Show Dogs” is a children’s picture book complete with easy-to-read words, but also contains piano and guitar music sheets, as well as a CD for kids to sing along with the words (and lyrics) of the story they are reading. Corrado is very proud of the finished product. “This combines the worlds of children, music and animals” she said.
In addition, Corrado is also marketing a music CD greeting card for all occasions, with lyrics written especially for animal lovers. Corrado got the inspiration for “Show Dog” in 2001, when she was asked by Bellmore resident Leslye Abbey to contribute a song for the “dogumentary” film, “Caution: Show Dogs”.
Her song, which she describes as being “a little ragtime”, told the story of a show dog. The movie didn’t smash any box office records, but it did win Corrado some fans. She received several calls from people saying they enjoyed her song. “I got so much praise on this song that I decided to develop other intellectual properties from it”, she said.
Her “Say It With Song” card line came first, and the reception was positive, Corrado said. “It’s just a completely different idea,” she said. “There was nothing else like it.” She then commissioned an illustrator to capture the words of her song in kid-friendly illustrations. The feedback was again positive, Corrado said. She took the idea one step further, and asked the illustrator to produce sketches, so kids readhing along could color the picture themselves. Thus, the coloring book was born.
Corrado is marketing all of her products herself, which appears on her Website, Chanteusemusic.com. This can be an arduous task, she said. She is hunting for a publishing company to pick up her idea, so she can spread the gift of song to animal lovers all around the country, and help keep her from spreading herself too thin. She holds down two other jobs besides her singing and writing.
“I’m like a one man band here,” she said. Until then, though, she will market her items herself. Retailers in other areas of the country are buying her items in greater numbers than local outlets, she said. The book, complete with CD and music sheet, is available for $14.95. The coloring book sells for $4.95.
Next on the horizon for Corrado is, naturally, “Show Cats”. “If there’s one for dogs, of course there has to be one for cats,” she said.
