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Singing All the Way Home

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PreS-Gr 2—In this collection of 18 songs, performer/songwriter Liz Buchanan displays her more than 15 years of experience in entertaining children and their families. Each song's theme is conveyed through clear, entertaining lyrics that often build early literacy skills. Topics vary from the life cycle of a butterfly in "If I Were a Butterfly" to the various kinds of dinosaurs in "Dinosaur Valentine," grammar in "The Opposite Game," and the need to preserve the Earth and its creatures in "This Fragile Earth." The majority of the numbers are originals by Buchanan including "The Three Piggy Opera," written with a K-1 class, and "Ni hao, Jambo, Hola," composed with a kindergarten class. In addition, Buchanan does a nice cover of Woody Guthrie's "Bling Blang." Buchanan is joined by a talented group of young children on the chorus of several songs. A fun addition for school and story time settings as well as for family listening.—Veronica Schwartz DeFazio, Plainfield Public Library, IL
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 , Oct 01, 2010

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