There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly... and More Stories That Sing

A FAV around our house
We own every Scholastic Video in the series & we think this is one of the best! These "stories that sing" are very catchy. My kids love to run around the coffee table (their form of dancing) to "There Was an Old Lady..." I admit when I first watched from afar the second story "Antarctic Antics", I thought the illustrations were kinda boring, just because I am not a huge fan of penguins...but since my kids request this one ALL the time, I have since grown to LOVE it. You are walked thru the life of a penguin. It is educational, but very entertaining with very funny lyrics like..."Antarctica, you'd better bring your partika" I find myself singing this often :) Lots of talented singers to be enjoyed (including singer from the Mavericks.) We love the bonus stories also (only on the DVD version.) Favorite author Lois Ehlert's "Waiting for Wings" is FABULOUS, I mean truly FABULOUS!!! This one is a winner.

Not up to Scholastic Video Collection Standards
Let me start out by saying we have a few DVDs from the Scholastic Video Collection and my family really likes them, especially "Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom" and "Where the Wild Things Are."

I really did not like this DVD and was disappointed with it. The main story was not too bad but the first read through was half sung and half read. After the reading of the story, there was the Cyndi Lauper version which was really bad. I don't know if it was the tempo, her accent or what but no one was going to be singing along. I guess I went blindly into this DVD because I like the other Scholastic Videos so much. I was thinking that my girls (2 and 4) might find some cool songs to sing. Sorry, no such thing here. As for the "and more stories that sing" part, that was completely off. The whole Antarctic Antics was sung but you are not going to be singing along with it, especially the part where they sing about penguin regurgitation.

I don't write a lot of reviews but I had to...

No age info. on the front cover
I bought this DVD (and others from the same collection) as alternatives to the ubiquitous Disney ... So far I have only seen this one. My only complaint is that there was no info regarding age on the front cover. I bought it for my six-year-old... and I think she would have enjoyed it a lot more at 3 or 4. At 6, I am not sure if she will want to watch it more than a couple of times.

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