It's been months, but Sandra Boynton hasn't erased the answering machine messages: "Hi Sandy, this is Meryl." (As in multiple Oscar-winner Meryl Streep.) "Sandy, this is Kevin." (As in Oscar-winner Kevin Kline.)

"That's worth saving," laughs Boynton, who took the calls while celebrities lined up to record songs for "Philadelphia Chickens," a new children's CD and accompanying book written and illustrated by Boynton. Others include Natasha Richardson, Eric Stoltz, Patti LuPone, Kevin Bacon, Scott Bakula and Laura Linney, a neighbor of Boynton's who was so nervous about singing that they recorded her song in Boynton's living room.

Boynton's children once attended school with Streep's kids, as they both live in rural Connecticut. A longtime friend, Streep happened to stop by her house at the very time Boynton was copying a demo for the song "Nobody Understands Me." And Boynton just happened to mention that when she was writing the song, she'd thought that Streep was the only person who could perform it effectively, since its subtlety required both good singing and acting.

Author appearance Sandra Boynton will answer questions and sign books at two free events today: • 1 p.m., Third Place Books, 17171 Bothell Way N.E., Lake Forest Park, 206-366-3333. • 7 p.m., Eagle Harbor Books, 157 Winslow Way E., Bainbridge Island, 206-842-5332.

So Streep offered to do it and asked if Boynton wanted her to ask Kline to help out since they were performing together in New York.

"It was a little surreal at that point," Boynton admitted. It was Streep's idea to donate a portion of proceeds to charity; Kline requested that half go to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation because his son has diabetes (the other beneficiary is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation).

Then Linney wanted to know if she could start asking her friends to contribute. Despite Boynton's protests, Linney picked up her cellphone and immediately enlisted Stoltz. "It's an unlikely but true story," Boynton said. "Laura convinced me by explaining that a lot of actors can sing but they don't usually get the opportunity. A lot of them have children, so they like singing something for their kids."

Witty lyrics, hip music

It probably helps that Boynton's charming yet somehow slightly subversive children's books are highly popular with the tot set. ("If you've written a 10-month-old's favorite book, the parents tend to be extremely grateful," she noted.) The books, including "Barnyard Dance" and "Hippos Go Berserk!," feature many of the technical pen-and-watercolor-drawn animals that populated her ubiquitous greeting cards in the 1980s. (Expect to see some reissued cards popping up in the next year.)

"Philadelphia Chickens" is her second children's CD/book, after "Rhinoceros Tap" in 1996. A collaboration with musician Michael Ford, "Chickens" has spent weeks on The New York Times' best-seller list for children's books.

The songs range from a plaintive "Those Dinosaur Blues" to a hopping "Jump Rope Jive," touching on ducks, cows, puppies and, of course, chickens, along the way. Boynton's lyrics include an ode to "Faraway Cookies":

"Oh, Chocolate Chip Cookies, / so high on the shelf / hiding inside of the jar — / I'm not tall enough / to reach you myself. / So near, and yet so very far."

Boynton says she's heard pitches to turn the CD, dubbed an "unforgettable (though completely imaginary) stage spectacular," into an actual stage musical or feature film. "Or maybe both. Or neither. I'm not sure which direction I'll go," she said.

Fitting with the book's goofy fun, Eagle Harbor Book Co. on Bainbridge Island will host an event tonight featuring not only the author, but also tame petting chickens and a group of students performing circus tricks. Plus, "I may have to tap dance in a cow suit," laughed bookseller Ann Combs.

Giving kids some credit

Combs' 1½-year-old grandson loves the book. "It has songs parents can stand to listen to over and over again," she said, noting that older children can play the included music on the piano.

Boynton said listening to her four children's "perky" music when they were younger convinced her to attempt "to make something perhaps a little more nuanced." Too often, children's music is "very condescending and repetitive," she said. "It doesn't move you."

Initially, she worried that she'd "overshot the mark" with the show-tune-style songs on "Philadelphia Chickens." But its popularity proves "children are capable of appreciating more sophisticated music than people give them credit for."

All four of her children (the youngest is in seventh grade, the oldest just graduating from college) sing on the record, with two taking lead vocals. Boynton herself sings a little background and is billed for "three peculiar cameos," including a cow heckler, a crabby lunch lady and the voice contemplating a bellybutton.

She's already working with Ford on a new album, and just finished a board book based on the "Chickens" song "Snuggle Puppy," due out this fall.

"And I'm doing laundry," she said.

"We all have to have a dream, and mine is that someday I'll get through the backup of all my laundry."

But the voice messages stay.

Stephanie Dunnewind: sdunnewind@seattletimes.com