From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 3-This series presents classics of Indian folklore in read-along form. Fish Friends Three, a story from an early Indian collection of fables called the Panchatantra, presents an industrious fish who saves her two lazy friends from a fisherman. The Talking Cave, also from the Panchatantra, is the standout in the series, with Bhuro (a rather dim lion king) providing some comic relief as a clever jackal tricks him. The Fox and the Squirrel, a South Indian folktale, wants to be a trickster tale but lacks both a trickster and a point. The Foolish Crow is the best-known story in the series. This version is based on the Jataka classic (stories of the Buddha), which precedes Aesop. Each cassette follows the same format: introductory song, directions, story laced with songs, and repetition of all songs at the end. While the tales themselves hold promise, there are problems with the series. The illustrations, though bright, are often garish. The text is uniformly dull and awkward, alternating narrative with an extremely forced rhyming structure. Textual errors creep in, such as the shifting tenses in Fish Friends Three. The music used on the tapes is y catchy, but the characters routinely repeat large chunks of dialogue in song, bogging down the stories. The vocals (all performed by Indian actors and actresses) are expressive, though the accents are at times difficult to decipher. While the series is aimed at beginning readers, the tapes often fail to follow the books. One of the publisher's stated goals is to introduce concepts within the stories; however, whenever concepts such as numbers are brought up, the connections to the tales are forced. The stories take on a moralistic and didactic tone. Libraries with large Indian populations may want to consider this series. Librarians beware-each book contains a "Colouring Sheet" at the end of the story.
Kathleen M. Kelly, Carroll County Public Library, MDCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.