For Your Consideration

BEst Children's Music Album 2026

Hot Toast Music Co, the award-winning family musician based out of Tulsa, OK, is back with his highly anticipated third full-length album, Creature Teachers. Hot Toast has spent the last decade writing music with kids and for kids, helping them navigate their inner emotional world and the world around them. He has developed a reputation as a dynamic performer who consistently brings authentic joy and connection to his interactive concerts.

His latest project, Creature Teachers, began as an educational exploration of animals local to the Southwest. As he learned more about each animal, he realized that this project would not only teach kids about creatures, but that it was also full of lessons that creatures teach us about ourselves. That concept was put to the test this past year when he was shockingly diagnosed with stage three colorectal cancer just a few months after completing the album. After the disappointing decision to pause the release of the project, Symon had a full year to sit with the songs and is thrilled to release the album now — as a cancer survivor — and having learned more than he ever expected about perseverance, hard work, staying calm, and making space from roadrunners, frogs, bison, and woodcocks.

Creature Teachers was written and recorded at Symon’s house (aka Hot Toast HQ) in the Oklahoma landscape of open horizons and resilient communities. It invites listeners to rediscover wonder in everyday life. Symon is also grateful to have the incredibly talented family music duo Andrew and Polly lend their beautiful voices to “I’m a Woodcock.”

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Liner notes & lyrics here