Robert McCloskey's gentle picture books are the subject of the Scholastic Video Collection's Make Way for Ducklings... and More Robert McCloskey Stories. Unlike other installments in the series, the majority of the stories are not animated; as the narrator reads, the camera pans over the pages of the book. But even without the animation, the narration and music provide a winning combination for the three Caldecott honorees--Blueberries for Sal (about the girl who can't stop eating berries as she picks them), Make Way for Ducklings (the duck family looking for a home in Boston), and Time of Wonder (absorbing the sights and sounds of a bay in Maine)--plus Lentil (the boy who learns the harmonica because he can't pucker his lips) and the sea story Burt Dow, Deep Water-Man. (One Morning in Maine seems like a curious omission.) Most of the selections look just like the books, but Burt Dow is animated, and Blueberries for Sal and Lentil are lightly colored. The Scholastic Video Collection continues to be a treat for both kids who are discovering these books and grown-ups who have loved them for years. --David Horiuchi |
