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Grow It At Home

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K-Gr 4—Multi-award winning singer/songwriter Peter Alsop presents 14 songs about promoting world peace, taking necessary action, and nurturing life on earth. He creatively varies his voice to represent the various characters: a deep and gravelly voice for a dragon, a high voice for a boy, a falsetto for a giraffe, etc. His Irish accent enhances "Was St. Pat Scared?" (of snakes). Musicians perform flawlessly on guitars, cello, keyboards, bass, accordion, pennywhistle, spoons, percussion, and dumbek as background to these folk, novelty, Celtic, Latin, rap, and zydeco musical styles. An enthusiastic children's chorus joins in on all the numbers. "Peaceful Feet" celebrates that body part; "Wish" encourages listeners to take action instead of wishing; "Ask Away" is a good way to learn; "Listen to the Beet" celebrates all aspects of that vegetable; and the "Dragon Who Flies by My Window" wants to take a little boy on a flight around the world. In "No, No, No!" everything a child asks for is met with a resounding "No!" Among the other songs are "Stick My Neck Out," "Strangers," "Sometimes Si, Sometimes No," and "I Love My Family." The lyric booklet includes guitar chords for most of the songs. A lively and fun album suitable for all children's music collections.—Beverly Wrigglesworth, San Antonio Public Library, TX
In this beautiful, heartrending, yet horrifying film, North Koreans tell their stories of imprisonment, sexual slavery, torture, murder, and escape to China or South Korea during the nearly 50-year regime of Kim Il Sung (1912—94). The interviews are illustrated through the interspersion of dance sequences, archival news footage, and drawings. Particularly interesting are the North Korean propaganda films celebrating Kim Il Sung as God and showing in the face of mass starvation happy workers, elaborate military displays, and the creation of a new flower in 1988 in honor of the 46th birthday of Kim's son and successor, Kim Jong Il. A valuable time line traces 20th-century events in Korea. Bonus features include previously unreleased footage of camp refugees. This mesmerizing film displays excellent production values and is highly recommended for Asia collections.—Kitty Chen Dean, formerly with Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY
Reviewed by Kitty Chen Dean , Apr 01, 2011

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