Miss Rumphius

As a little girl, Alice Rumphius harbored two dreams: to travel to faraway places, and to one day live in a house by the ocean. Her grandfather added a third goal...do something to make the world more beautiful. As she grew, Miss Rumphius fulfilled those dreams, making friends and having adventures all over the world, before settling down in a small seaside village. In her later years, she began sowing lupins everywhere, filling the hillsides with gorgeous blue, purple, and white blossoms, and so made her world a prettier place. Based on a true story, this iconographic adaptation of writer-illustrator Barbary Cooney's 1999 picture book, featuring narration by Claire Danes, is a sweet tale that underscores the importance of bettering the world (though I was a little disappointed that the program implies that her planting flowers was a more significant contribution than her global travels and consequent friendships). Overall, this is a nicely produced video that encourages both reading and thinking about the outside world. Recommended. Aud: K, E, P. (E. Gieschen)