Watch Kids' Reviews of
BANQUET ON THE GROUND

coming

The music is classical and supports the narrative extremely well without being intrusive. It is very appealing. It's difficult to recommend this CD to a child because the concepts are a bit lofty and younger children would lose interest. It was difficult for our adult judges to hang in even though it is well performed. This CD is an allegory using animal characters to demonstrate universal attributes of working for one's food, not taking hand-outs and working in chorus with your neighbor to achieve goals. All good but, the question begs: are these moral messages communicating to the intended audience of elementary school children? The presentation is well conceived, the orchestration beautifully supportive, the narration is solid but, this could have been enhanced with additional character voices. Essentially this CD falls in the cracks between its intended audience and the message. Reviewed by John Wood.

Narrated by Cheryl Rhoads (Mother Goose), the story is told from the perspective of animals in a small yard world who have always taken care of themselves until a generous "seed woman," moves into the house and starts giving them delightful edibles replacing their efforts with the expected daily delights.