VAN HELSING: THE LONDON ASSIGNMENT fills in the rest of the story that makes up the introductory sequence to the movie VAN HELSING. In this animated story, Van Helsing is sent to London to find out who is responsible for several recent killings of young women of the night. Van Helsing soon finds out that the killer is a brutish monster who calls himself Hyde who has some sort of connection to Queen Victoria's personal physician, the mysterious Dr. Jeckyl. The Doctor is up to something no good and Van Helsing is going to find out exactly what.

VAN HELSING: THE LONDON ASSIGNMENT is not a cartoon meant for the really young. It shows a lot of violence and includes some sexual induendo. Were it a live action piece, it would garner a PG-13 movie rating.

When viewing the piece as a whole, it seems somewhat choppy and spliced together as though it were a television show. Which in fact is what this animated feature is intended to be. THE LONDON ASSINGNMENT isn't just a prequel to the successful movie, it's also the pilot for a planned animated series.

The DVD includes several extra features: a "Behind the Scenes" look at the movie, movie storyboards for the animated story, a making of look at the animated story, and a making of look at the Van Helsing video game. The extra features might not seem like much, but for a 33 minute cartoon, it's quite a lot of stuff. Overall, a nice gift for anyone who likes VAN HELSING.

MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL is a piece of nonfiction. However, it's not really a crime story, nor is it a straight biography/memoir. Instead, the book falls somewhere inbetween the two. The story revolves around the author's experiences living in Savannah, Georgia and meeting up with Jim Williams and his trial for murder that ended up being tried four different times over a period of eight years. The murder and the trials are kind of interesting and they are the threads that hold the story together. However, the really interesting parts about this book are the people. From Luther Driggers, a man who has a bottle of poison that could kill off everyone in Savannah, Georgia to the transvestite Lady Chablis to the vodoo mistress Minerva, this book is filled with quirky people. After reading the book it occurred to me that Savannah, though a city, reminds me of every small town I've ever lived in. People not familiar with small towns will probably find the characters interesting, but people who grew up in small towns might be amazed because they probably know someone who is an awful like one of the characters in the book. A very interesting read and a book that I didn't want to put down until I had finished it.

It's hard to believe, but Mel Brooks' career starting taking off when he teamed up with Carl Reiner to do comedy albums. Long before YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN or THE PRODUCERS or BLAZING SADDLES, Brooks was a kind of stand-up comic who worked best doing ad-lib with a partner and Reiner was the perfect partner. I first heard about this album from my Dad and he told me it was a great piece of comedy. Though some of the material on the album might not seem as fresh to young audiences today, it's still classic comedy. The perfect timing between Brooks and Reiner is unbelivable. Reiner had the hardest job, having to keep playing the straight man to whatever Brooks threw out, but he never lost his beat. Younger audiences might not be able to fully appreciate the genius of the classical comedy album, but for those who have an appreciation for true comedy and haven't been warped by the "era of irony", 2000 YEARS WITH CARL REINER AND MEL BROOKS is worth listening to.

TELEVISION'S GREATEST HITS VOLUME 1 includes 65 theme songs from various television shows that first aired in the 1950s and 1960s. The cd is divided into four sections: Early Morning Cartoons, Afternoon Adventure, Mid-Morning Sitcoms, and Prime Time Drama. 65 themes might seem like a lot, but there are a lot of tunes that people are familiar with that aren't on this album. And there are a couple of tunes (Fireball XL-5, for instance) that some people probably have never heard about. I really enjoy this cd. We used to play one or two themes from it on the children's radio show I used to produce and I've used it on the webradio show I worked on occasionally. Some of the tracks from some of the older shows sound like they were taped off a record player--for me this isn't really a problem and appealed more to my sense of nostalgia. However, the one major flaw I did have about this album is that about 1/4th to 1/3rd of all the songs aren't the original songs at all, but re-recordings taped in such a way to sound like the originals: the biggest glaring example of this is #15, "The Beverly Hillbillies"--the songs all there, but it's not the original. Besides that, though, TELEVISION'S GREATEST HITS is a great cd to own for anyone who likes tv theme songs, especially from the classic days of tv.

THE GIVING TREE has become a piece of classic modern children's literature. It is the story of a tree who gives everything she has to a little boy. At first the boy loves in return, but then he begins to take and take and give nothing in return, until finally after many years the tree is nothing more than a battered stump. The boy eventually returns to the tree and though he never acknowledges any selfish behavior the tree offers him what little she has left and the relationship between the two is restored.

I get teared up almost every time I read this story. To me, it seems to be a wonderful allegory about the nature of God's love and his relationship to humankind. God gives and gives and gives and we take and take and take, yet He loves us still, even though we are plotting our doom and will one day be brought low and destroyed for our transgressions. However, I also realize that there are several other ways of reading this books, too (there's the whole environmental take). Whatever way you read it, I find it amazing that the pot smoking Silverstein, who was known for using racy language, was also one of the foremost children's authors of the modern era and was able to write such a moving work. Knowing that, the effect of the story's moral is augmented.

Anyway. Some might think that the moral lesson in the giving tree isn't right for young children to know. I disagree. Life's not always fair and though there are many children who see the selfishness of the little boy, many fail to see the selfishness in themselves and therefore miss out on the book's main point. A wonderful, powerful, and moving children's story.

I purchased this book because it had such an intersting title: JACKALOPE. Simple, yet mysterious. A jackalope is an imaginary (well, maybe not totally imaginary) creature that has the body of a jack rabbit and the horns of an antelope. This book is "the absolute truth" about what happened to the jackalope. The story is narrated by a crudgy old armadillo who sits in a lawn chair.

Basically, there once was a jack rabbit named Jack who wasn't happy being who he was. He wanted to be a fierce and frightening creature. One day he wished upon a star and his fairy godrabbit appeared and gave him the horns of an antelope. But there was a catch, but Jack was so excited, he didn't listen to what the catch was.

This is a hilarious story that mixes everything together from American tall tales to classic fairy tales. There's a little bit of Cinderella, Pinocchio, the big bad wolf (coyote) from Little Red Riding Hood involved. There's also a touch of Aesop's fables and a magic mirror that is probably a cousin to the one in Snow White. All of this and vegetable jokes and witty wordplay. Plus, some really clever illustrations. Tack on a false ending and some scientific facts about jackrabbits, antelope, and horned toads and you've got yourself one mighty fine story. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a great story, age doesn't matter.

First of all, I love this book because I love penguins. However, as a piece of children's literature, it's so much more. This is an excellent example of how literature (poetry) and science can go hand and hand. There are some poems in this book that seem written just for fun, (e.g. "Be My Penguin"). However, most of the poems in this book are written about and around actual behaviors that penguins exhibit: from regurgiating their food to feed the young ("Regurgitate") to the motherly instincts of father penguins ("A Hatchling's Song" and "My Father's Feet") to poetic riddles about penguin predators (sea lion, killer whale). The book is charming, easy to read, and full of delightful penguin illustrations. A great gift for any child interesting in science or literature or anyone who (like me) just loves penguins.

I picked up PENGUIN DREAMS because penguins are one of my favorite animals and I'm always on the lookout for a good penguin book to share with children I know. The book doesn't have a lot of words and has some really interesting pictures. Basically, there's this penguin called Chongo Chingi (sounds like a monkey name to me) who falls to sleep and has a dream. And what a bizarre dream it is. I'm not sure how much younger children will enjoy this book, but for those around kindergarten age and older it might be a hoot. Actually, even though it's a children's book, adults are probably the people who can most appreciate the book's artistic splendor. Little kids will probably find it boring.

The title to this collection of nursery rhymes is song lyrics is rather misleading because 1/3 to 1/2 of the rhymes in this book aren't actually from "Mother Goose". However, there is a mother goose on the cover reading stories to various animal children. All of the illustrations in the books are of human-like animals. There are only 22 total different rhymes, but the book is small and young children will enjoy having it read to them and looking through the pictures.

This interesting book explains to children the basic life cycle of a loggerhead sea turtle. The book opens with a brief introduction explaining that a sea turtle is related to tortoises and terrapins, but they are different types of animals. After the one-page introduction, the actual story begins. We follow the life cycle of a sea turtle called Loggerhead from the time she is a small turtle living and hiding in sea weeds and drift wood to the time Loggerhead swims to the mating beaches to mate and lay her eggs. The last pages of the book include a brief index that can help teach children what an index is and how to use it. ONE TINY TURTLE is a great reading science book for young children. It's very factual and realistic in displaying and describing what we know of the life of a sea turtle (for instance, after the eggs are hatched, it makes it clear that only a few baby turtles ever make it to the ocean and the rest are eaten by crabs and birds). Highly recommended, especially for anyone who likes turtles.