BOOKBOX ANIMAL STORIES

Description:

Award-winning BookBox makes learning to read fun. Conceived by child literacy expert Dr. Brij Kothari and his team, at Stanford University, BookBox Stories entertain children and improve their reading skills at the same time. Using scientifically tested SLS (same language subtitling), children will improve their listening comprehension, reading skills and foreign language skills by watching, listening and reading aloud these enchanting animal stories. There are three ways to use this DVD. You can watch the story as it is told and read the text which is synchronized, listen to the story without text, read the story out loud as the program plays with music and text but without the recorded narration. KIDS FIRST! Endorsed and Dr. Toy Top 10 Audio/Video Awards. Three stories featured: 1. Turtle's Flute Turtle is a gifted flutist. When the Turtle played her flute, everyone danced. One day, she is trapped by a greedy man. How will she escape now? 2. Zippy the Zebra Zippy is bugged by a hide full of fleas. No amount of tail swishing or tree trunk scratching would give him any relief. Finally a pair of birds help him out by making a meal of his unwelcome guests. 3. The Four Friends Animal friends work together to outwit a hunter and protect each other! Animal friends are based on an ancient Indian Fables.

KIDS FIRST!® Adult Juror Comments:

Encourages children to read along as they watch the story. Each story had an interesting moral lesson that encouraged friendship, working together and showed positive outcomes. These stories come from different countries and are done in a literary style, showing pictures like drawings in a book. Very easy to follow along with the words for early readers and fun to watch for pre-readers. Though the stories are paced slowly, they are complex enough to make you think - for instance, why would a "water seed" make water? These classic stories will give your child a glimpse into different cultures.

KIDS FIRST!® KID Juror Comments:

Very enjoyable. "It was fun to follow the words at the bottom." While some kids were intrigued by the stories, others craved a more action-packed video. "The movie made me want to read along." "I like how the animals helped their friends. It makes me think about helping my friends." Two 4-year-olds expressed an interest afterwards in wanting to read "like the lady telling the story." "I liked the characters because they were funny." The movie seemed to have a calming affect. Kids were curious to find out what would happen as the stories progressed. "It was funny how they planted a piece of ice and thought it was a water seed, and when they dug a hole to look for it and woke up the next morning to find a well full of water! It was also funny when the elephant ate all the ice cream and kicked the coconut." Some of the younger readers found the words moved too quickly to follow.