Plymouth Librarians' Choice

Good Night, Gorilla… and more bedtime stories

Youth DVD Shelves – Lower Level - G

Get ready for bed with these gentle tellings of acclaimed children's picture books. Like all of the Westin Woods Scholastic productions, the book's illustrations are gently animated and set to original music, while a narrator reads the text. Since recent research indicates that television's fast pace makes it more difficult for children to concentrate on the real world, these slower-paced stories are a good way to give children the tv-watching they want without the frantic speed. Plus, the stories are great. This one features Good Night Gorilla, How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night, Happy Birthday, Moon and The Napping House, with extra stories The Paperboy, Patrick and The Hat.

Madeline
Dvd Collection – Youth Dvd Shelves – Lower Level - M

If you are a fan of Ludwig Bemelmans’ enchanting Madeline books you will adore this movie adaptation. Madeline tells the story of 12 little girls who live in a Paris boarding school and share adventures together under the watchful eye of their loving teacher Miss Clavel. Madeline is the smallest of the girls and the most precocious.

The movie is as charming as the rhyming text of the books as it follows Madeline and the girls as they experience some unforgettable times with the Spanish Ambassador’s son Pepito, the lovable dog Genevieve, and the stuffy Lord Covington. Madeline was shot in France and displays some of the most well-known attractions of Paris including: the Eiffel Tower, Hotel des Invalides, Luxembourg Gardens, and the Pont de l’Archeveche bridge. Madeline the character is extremely likeable and is sure to bring laughter and joy to both children and adults as they watch her face any challenge with an undeniable strength and wit!

Once Upon a Mattress
Youth DVD Shelves – Lower Level - O

If you like old-fashioned campy musicals and revisionist fairy tales, take a look at this one. Carol Burnett and Tracey Ullman star in this Disney version of the Broadway classic. Burnett (who played Princess Winifred in the original Broadway production) stars as Queen Agravain, the queen of a fairy-tale land who won’t let her 40-something son, Prince Dauntless, get married. What she tells Dauntless is that a real princess would pass her test, which is different every time. But Lady Larken and Sir Harry need Dauntless to get married. No one else is allowed to get married until Dauntless is, and Larken is pregnant. Sir Harry goes on a quest to find a princess who can pass the tests and comes back with Princess Fred (Tracey Ullman) a moat-swimming princess from the swamp. Since the story is based on The Princess and the Pea, we all know how the story will end, but Dauntless and Fred are racking their brains to figure out what the test will be and how to pass it. Burnett commands the screen, wearing fabulous sequined outfits with elaborate headdresses that look like an unholy cross between 1450 and Las Vegas. Ullman’s Winifred is charming and stubborn, especially as she’s complaining about how Snow White had a seven men (practically a regiment, even if they were short) helping her get to happily ever after, while she’s on her own. There's humor for adults as well as kids in this wonderful romp of a movie.