Parents' Choice Foundation: Reviewing Children's Media Since 1978



Parents' Choice Awards : Audio : Storytelling
The Great Sled Race

The Great Sled Race

Fall 2000 Storytelling
Ages: 7 & Up
Performed By: Mike Anderson
Producer: Music Works
CD Price: $15.00
Review:
Mike Anderson relates peppery tales that "have some semblance of truth," as he combines the everyday with the unlikely, inspired by his childhood in a small Illinois farming community with his best pal, Denny. In conversational, professional storyteller’s cadence, Anderson communicates a wealth of vivid, down home imagery: "genuine imitation Davy Crockett hats," 25 cent movies, Schwinn bicycles, October moons, crawdad fishing next to a graveyard using string, a safety pin and bacon; a favorite bike path through a cornfield that was "like a green hallway" in the summer and a magical place of "corn ghosts" when the fog rolled in. Suspenseful tales include "The Thumb," a rather unusual Christmas story called "Cats," and "Billy Higgs," a cautionary tale involving a braggart and a perilous path next to railroad tracks. The title story is about a landmark event in two lives destined to grow apart.
Lynne Heffley   ©2000 Parents' Choice
A long-time Parents' Choice music critic, Lynne was a staff writer for 25 years at the Los Angeles Times where she established and maintained the paper's first weekly children's arts and entertainment beat and was a general arts reporter. Now a freelance writer, Lynne works in the areas of non-profit communications, the arts and family entertainment (specializing in children's theater, music, audio books and book illustration). In her spare time, when she's not reading, Lynne is likely to be found strumming American Songbook standards and Tin Pan Alley novelty songs on one of her seven ukuleles.
Look for this product at:
Music Works
http://www.dulcimerguy.com

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