In honor of K’s third birthday tomorrow I’d thought I’d take the opportunity (or just use it as an excuse) my current favorite kid’s TV show: The Backyardigans.

We discovered them about a year or so ago, completely by accident, and were instantly smitten. When the show is on, I tend to watch it rather than read or blog or whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing, and I know I enjoy it at least as much as the girls do. Ordinarily, I love it for the music and how every episode has a different musical style. The songs are usually catchy and cute, and imminently singable. We each have our favorites: M likes Samurai Pie, C likes Scared of You and Race to the Tower of Power (it was hard to choose), A likes Whodunit — “Great Caeser’s Ghost!” — and K likes International Super Spy.

But that’s really not enough to warrant a blog post here… I’m here to talk about my favorite episode, The Masked Retriever.

Uniqua (that’s the pink polka dot one) is a librarian who loves to check out books. Except… sometimes people don’t bring the books back on time (oh, no!). Then she becomes The Masked Retriever: a Zorro-like hero to get the books back and return them to their proper place in the library. Don Austin, the most important man in Viejo, California, has checked out The Case of the Climbing Cat by Cynthia Rylant, and it’s one day overdue. However, he refuses to return the book, and decides to hightail it to Mexico. Uniqua the librarian can’t stand for that (leaving the country with an overdue library book, for shame!), and so (as The Masked Retriever) sets out to caputre him. She corners Don Austin in an abandoned church (where he’s up in the tower reading), to get the book back. In the course of the confrontation, Don Austin confesses the reason he doesn’t want to return the book because he’s not done with it. Oh, The Masked Retriever responds, You can just renew it! (novel idea!) And all ends happily ever after…

There’s so much I love about this episode. The music’s okay (not my favorite; I like the Bollywood stylings of Into the Deep best, and the bluegrass from Escape from Fairy TaleVillage second), but the plot’s fabulous. I love that they used a real book. I love the lyrics to the songs. I love the dialogue. I love Austin’s little mustache. And I love that they made librarians even cooler than they already are.

The best part, though, is the opening song that Uniqua sang:

I am a great librarian
And I’m full of information
I know every book on every shelf
and every stack

There here for you to borrow
So come on in and take them
But you better keep track
When it’s time to bring them back

Because sometimes I become
The Masked Retriever
Hunting down books that are
missing or lost or late.

The Masked Retriever
I am The Masked Retriever
I find them even if they’re hiding
in another state.

People think librarians
are glamorous and stylish.
We always look so elegant;
We aim to please.

Yes, of course, that’s true, but
It’s not the whole story.
‘Cuz I have a secret side,
A side that no one ever sees.

Yes, sometimes I become
The Masked Retriever
Hunting down borrowers
Whose books are over due.

The Masked Retriever
I am The Masked Retriever
So don’t forget your due date
Or I’m coming after you.

Yes, so I become
The Masked Retriever
Someone’s got to do it
And that somebody is me.

The Masked Retriever
I am The Masked Retriever
The bravest, boldest hero
That you’ll probably ever see.

Verdict: totally and completely charming. It’s on the Robin Hood the Clean DVD. (As well as several other literary/folklore heroes: The Three Musketeers, Robin Hood, and The Journey to the Center of the Earth.) I love this show.