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Scholastic and Weston Woods Studios are masters at turning best-selling children's books into quality videos, and now they've found a clever way to package them that's perfect for traveling. Today's antidote for long car drives or plane trips made even longer by the constant whining of the kids is the backseat or portable DVD player. Scholastic's travel kit, packed in a cardboard box with Velcro closure and a plastic carrying handle, includes two DVDs with a total of over two hours of read-along stories and songs, a 45-minute CD of fun songs, a box of four crayons, and a 34-page activity book. Popular children's stories included on the two
Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD collections include "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly," "Frog Went A-Courtin'," "Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!," "Dem Bones," and "Musical Max," and each story features faithfully animated artwork from the book and narration and/or songs performed by talented artists including Chrystal Taliefero, Woody Guthrie, Mae Robertson, and Cyndi Lauper. Each DVD features a nice mix of newer and older stories and fanciful and factual tales. The CD showcases some of the songs from the stories on the two DVDs, as well as a variety of songs from other
Scholastic Storybook Treasures compilations, including "Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3" sung by Chrystal Taliefero; "The Erie Canal" performed by "The Fab Three," Scotty Huff, Robert Reynolds, and Paul Deakin; and "Dinosaur Bones" with Raul Malo. Finally, the activity book features some packing and travel tips for parents, and everything from mazes, number tracing, and simple matching games to a host of pictures of famous characters like Strega Nona and Harry the Dirty Dog for the kids to color. Sure, parents could make their own kits like this from the Scholastic videos on their shelves, but kids will love a new selection of videos for the trip as well as the novelty of a special self-contained kit that's just for traveling. (Ages 2 to 8)
--Tami Horiuchi
