Are You My Mother?; I Am Not Going To Get Up Today

These two entries in the "Beginner Book Video" series highlight the difference between a basic picture book and truly creative picture book writing. Are You My Mother? features the title story plus two others by P.D. Eastman (Go, Dog. Go! and The Best Nest). In Are You My Mother?, a baby bird hatches in its nest and wanders off to locate its mother, not having the slightest clue what mom might look like. The bird therefore queries a kitten, hen, dog, cow, etc. The writing is both repetitive (which is, of course, a necessary aspect of picture books) and straightforward, and the words do not appear on the screen. Ditto for Go, Dog. Go! which primarily teaches shapes, colors and directions. The Best Nest, which is also the best of the trio, at least offers a story as Mr. and Mrs. Bird set off to find a "better" nest only to discover that they're original home is the best of all. The problem with the P.D. Eastman stories is that they are designed to teach children to read -therefore the language is extremely basic. On an audiovisual level, however, a 3 or 4-year-old is far more sophisticated than what is offered in the Eastman stories. I Am Not Going To Get Up Today!, on the other hand, which contains three additional stories by Dr. Seuss (The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, Great Day for Up, and In a People House), presents the sparkling imagination and canny rhyming abilities of one of the great masters of the picture book. As the narrator of 1 Ant Not Going To Get Up Today makes clear, "today's my day for woozy-snoozing," and no matter the incentive-pea-shooters, marching bands, the military-he is not getting up. The two middle stories are the weakest, addressing shapes and animals waking up, respectively. But the final story, In a People House, is a delight. Mr. Mouse shows Mr. Bird all the sights there are to see in a "people" house, and the words are printed onscreen. Bringing picture books to the video format is a sound concept, but the more basic the work, the more necessary it is to put the words on the screen. Had both programs done this, they both would have been highly recommended. As it is, Are You My Mother? is not recommended, but the creative 1 Am Not Going To Get Up Today is highly recommended. (Available from most distributors.)