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The Rosemary Wells Collection DVD (featuring Max and Ruby) Review by Heidi Miller-Ford
Scholastic902 Broadway FL 9
New York, NY 10010
212-206-8600
http://www.scholastic.com/
Introducing great books to children while creating a love for literature is so important. The Rosemary Wells Collection takes eight of Rosemary Wells's stories and brings them to life on DVD. This is a fun way to hear and watch old favorite stories. This collection includes two DVDs, each featuring four different stories.
The main menu of each DVD allows you to choose whether you want the words to appear at the bottom of the screen. As the story is read, the words are highlighted from white to blue. There is an option to watch a Spanish version as well. You can play through all the stories in a row or select them one at a time.
The stories are animated and very enjoyable to watch. My three-year-old daughter loved almost every one of them. I wondered at first if they would be too low key compared to most shows children watch on television today and therefore bore her, but she wasn't bored. In fact, they were actually very calming and a nice change of pace.
I found these stories to be quite educational, covering things like counting and other math skills, character education, science, geography, history, and much more. I think there is a lot children would learn from these stories, and because they are animated, they would be drawn to them and pick up easily on these skills. My daughter has asked to watch these quite a few times. The "100 Days of School" story is pretty lengthy as it literally talks about what happens on each of the first 100 days of school. My daughter did ask when that story was going to be over. This particular one may be better split up over two viewings. Also something worth mentioning is that the Max and Ruby characters on these DVDs look slightly different from what most children would be use to on the television program. Once my daughter got over the shock of that, she was fine and loved them.
These DVDs are recommended for ages 2 to 7, but I'm not sure they would keep a seven-year-old's attention. I would recommend this collection for preschool aged children. I'm sure we will be viewing these a lot over the next couple of years. Because the stories are so educational and never go out of style, my youngest daughter will probably enjoy them as well when she is a little older. The two-DVD set is $19.95 and has a viewing time of approximately two and half hours.
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