How a Tugboat Works, with IQ Parrot

IQ Parrot is back in another production from the award-winning team of Robert Frye and William Love (How a Car Is Built, with IQ Parrot [VL-11/95]). Here we follow the Tugboat Miriam as she first docks, and then helps launch the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 at New York Harbor. The program offers an excellent blend of technological razzle dazzle and seamanship info, presented through interviews, a well-structured narrative, and humorous quips from IQ Parrot (a computer animated character superimposed over the live action components.) As with How a Car is Built, the program is enhanced with historical footage of early tugs. There's even some excitement when the portly harbor pilot jumps from the deck of the Miriam to a side hatch in the QE2 (an event that requires a precise matching of speeds with the liner). The photography is superb, as we range from other activities going on in the harbor to tours of the Miriam's bridge, crew quarters, and engine room. Highly recommended for ages 4-12. Editor's Choice. (E. Swanson)