[Pet Health Admin]

Customer Review: Excellent stories, excellent storytellers, excellent fun!
This very simple video is a record of live performances of some of the nation's best storytellers at a National Festival a few summers ago. It is a tape which can serve as the perfect compromise for parents whose TV tolerance (and appreciation) is as low as mine, but have kids who love to watch videos. (At our house, videos are only allowed on weekend evenings, and we don't watch TV during the schoolweek at all.) However, I would allow my daughter to watch this tape every night--during the summer, for example. What is spectacular about these performances is actually their simplicity. The youngest child capable of sitting still long enough to listen can certainly enjoy this tape, and yet no adult will be able to leave the room when it is on. The power of the storyteller is to draw us in, the way people did before they had to compete with videogames, and violent TV shows for attention. The tape includes some of the best performances of traditional storytelling by live storytellers that I have ever seen. The stories are appropriate for children but adults will not find them childish stories. We are actually on our second copy of this type, as someone we know liked it so much, they kept it. As a result of seeing this tape (and the two other volumes) we bought several audiotapes to hear in the car, recorded by some of the storytellers who star in this video, like David Novak and Ed Stivender, two of my favorites. Even the adults will be mezmerized by the unique talents of these storytellers, and children will be inspired to tell stories of their own. The wonderful thing about this tape is how it inspires a love for storytelling--and storylistening, that can only be a source of wonder and pleasure, and language development for any child. Plus, it's real family entertainment--it serves as a focus for a family spending time together rather than wrapped up in their own little "TV cocoons". I highly recommend this tape for anybody who loves stories.


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