Between the Lions - Red Hat Green Hat [VHS]
Between the Lionsis a lively children's show that utilizes puppetry, music, live action, and animation to help kids learn to read. Set in a historic-looking library, the show features the lion family that runs the library and lots of their animal friends. In "Red Hat, Green Hat," Leona Lion (who's too young to read) wants her brother Lionel to read her a book she's chosen about a beautiful hat. Lionel refuses because he's already engrossed in the newspaper's sports page. Leona trots off to make a replica of the hat and soon the whole library is arguing over her creation. When Leona and Lionel finally read the book about the hat, they discover the cause of the chaos and set about remedying the situation. The puppetry and narrative are intriguing and entertaining, but there's much more to this 27-minute video than just this simple story. A variety of jazz, gospel, country, and Broadway-inspired songs abound. Each song stresses the sounds of letters and letter combinations and is accompanied by onscreen letter graphics. Animated vignettes explore rhyming, puppet interludes help kids combine words into sentences, live-action sequences feature adults sounding out words letter by letter, and knights in shining armor charge together forming words by combining letter sounds. With its amazing variety and brisk pace, this PBS, Parent's Choice Award-winning show absolutely rivets the attention of 4- to 7-year-olds.Between the Lionsmay represent a phonics lesson to parents, but to kids it's a fascinating program that inspires the imagination and sets the stage for a lifelong love of reading.--Tami Horiuchi