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I Love Earth

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K-Gr 4—Billed as "The Absolute Best of Lucas Miller, The Singing Zoologist!," the performer has culled 16 songs with environmental messages from his three previous albums (The Anaconda La Bamba!, There's a Chicken on My Head!, and Gotta Take Care of the Hive) and added five new tunes to this disc. Opening with a rocking number listing everything he enjoys doing while outside ("I Love Earth"), Miller then takes on the persona of a shark as he describes the ocean's food chain ("I'm a Mako Shark"). Other new songs include "Bluebonnet Time" (a country-flavored tune about the flower's pollination process), "The Prairie Chicken Boogie" (opens with a chicken night club bit about the chicken's spring mating dance), and "Who's in That Egg?" (a ballad about different kinds of eggs). Once again, Miller's catchy original tunes and thoughtful, fun lyrics teach as they entertain. Each is well-arranged and well-performed, and often sung tongue-in-cheek. Melding many styles of music, this family-friendly disc will be useful in the classroom.—Stephanie Bange, Wright State University, Dayton, OH
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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