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A "FINE ARTS" approach to reading and literature 

DVD extras include: READ ALONE  *  READ ALONG   *   PRINT THE BOOK 

Painters, artists, sketchers, and crafters use their unique talents to bring color and motion to a fascinating collection of familiar children's stories from around the world.  Using paint, oils, chalk, clay, fabric, and other artistic elements, their creative approach is mesmerizing and captivating.  Voice-over narration, thematic music and the artist’s hand combine to bring each classic tale to colorful life.

"Drawing their stories will help children communicate and make connections with emergent literacy." Judy Potter

1. The Three Little Pigs  (Watercolors)
Max wants to play ball with his father, but his father has to finish his work first. To teach Max that he should never put off until tomorrow what he can do today, he tells him the classic story of the Three Little Pigs, who leave home in search of adventure. They each build a house, but only the house of the eldest brother, the hardest worker, resists the attack of the big bad wolf. Moral of the story: sloth never pays off.

2. Cinderella  (Mixed Media)
Poor Cinderella is treated like a maid by her cruel stepmother and stepsisters. One day her Fairy Godmother appears and with a wave of her magic wand allows Cinderella to go to the ball where she meets the Prince. He falls madly in love with her at first sight. But Cinderella must be home by midnight. As she flees the palace, she loses her slipper on the stair and the Prince searches the kingdom to find the person whose foot fits into the slipper and make her his wife.

3. The Brave Little Tailor  (Colored Chalk)
A tailor who kills seven flies with one stroke outwits the king, winning half the kingdom and the king’s daughter’s hand in marriage. He proves that to become a king it is more important to be smart than strong.

4. The Great Race  (Watercolors)
Based on Aesop’s popular fable The Tortoise and the Hare, Pepa the turtle, annoyed by the mocking tone of the ill-mannered hare, challenges her to a race. The hare keels over in laughter but agrees. In the end the arrogant hare pays for the mistake of being overly confident and loses the race.

5. Goldilocks  (Oils & Ink)
Goldilocks goes out for a walk in the forest and comes across a pretty cabin. Being a curious young girl, she enters the house and makes herself right at home, but she is in for quite a surprise when the three bears who live there return home and find her sleeping in Baby Bear’s bed.

6.  Tiny Tom  (Construction Paper Cut-outs)
Tiny Tom, who was as tiny as a grain of rice, always sang to avoid being stepped on. One day he begged his mother to let him go out alone and take his father’s lunch to him at work, but on the way he had to take cover from a sudden downpour. He hid under a cabbage plant and was soon swallowed alive by a hungry cow. When his parents went out looking for him, they heard his voice coming from inside the cow’s tummy. He’d soon fly out safe and sound as the cow passed gas.

7. The Pied Piper of Hamelin  (Color Transparencies)
The Town Council of Hamelin is worried because the town is infested with rats. The Pied Piper is hired to rid the town of rodents. He plays a magical, sad tune on his pipes and leads all the rats into the river, where they drown. But the Mayor refuses to pay him the agreed fee, so now the Piper plays a very cheerful tune on his pipes luring away all the boys and girls of Hamelin. The Mayor looks for him in despair and when he finds him, he begs his forgiveness, pays him what his due, and the children return to Hamelin.

8. The Tin Soldier  (Molding Clay)
For Christmas Margaret’s Granddad gives her the figures of a ballerina and a one-legged tin soldier joined together on a base shaped like a heart and tells her the story of how they became united forever.
A little boy with lots of toys and tin soldiers didn’t know that they all came to life at night. His bravest soldier, his one-legged tin soldier, falls in love with a ballerina, but one night he is accidentally blown off the window sill and sets out upon a perilous journey through gutters, sewers and the sea until he ends up in a fish’s tummy. The fish is caught and sold at the market to his former owner’s mother. This is how he is reunited with the ballerina. But when she is blown off the mantelpiece into the flames, he dives in after her. The slow fire melts the two figures into one and is saved in the nick of time by the boy.

9. The Emperor’s New Clothes  (Paints & Watercolors)
The Emperor of a far-off kingdom had a reputation for being very vain. This attracted two imposters to the palace, claiming to be famous tailors owning the most beautiful cloth in the world which is invisible to the eyes of the stupid and incompetent. They sell him a new suit of clothes made out of the invisible cloth and take off with a chest full of gold. The Emperor appears in front of his subjects stark naked, but no one dares to say a thing out of fear of being branded stupid or incompetent, except for two young children, whose sincerity show the king he had been miserably duped.

10.  Little Red Riding Hood  (Mixed Media)
Little Red Riding Hood goes off to take cakes and honey to her grandmother. A wolf in the forest tricks her into taking a longer path so that he can take a shortcut and get to the grandmother’s house first. He swallows the grandmother and pretends to be her when Little Red Riding Hood arrives. Then he swallows her down, too. A hunter passing by is surprised to hear heavy snoring coming from the grandmother’s cottage. When he sees the wolf’s big belly, he slices it open and rescues the grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood promises never to talk to strangers again.

11. The Little Fir Tree  (Colored Ink & Pen)
The tall fir tree standing in Sergi’s yard is all decorated for Christmas. When Sergi’s ball gets stuck in the top branches of the tree, the tree comes to life and tells the children the story of how when he was only five, his dream came true: he became a Christmas tree.

12. Caroline and the Yule Log  (Mixed Crafts)
Christmas tale based on the Catalan tradition of the magic Yule log which children fatten up days before Christmas so that on Christmas day, with its appetite satisfied, they hit it with a stick and it releases all the toys it has inside.
In this story, curious Caroline creeps inside the hollow Yule Log intent on finding out the mystery of where Christmas presents come from and gets herself into trouble for going where she shouldn’t. There she befriends another prisoner, the ogre Ot, and together they make their escape.

13. The Snowman  (Construction Paper Cut-Outs)
Four friends build a snowman and unknowingly roll the fireplace shovel into the biggest snowball that is the snowman’s body. At night the snowman comes to life and becomes good friends with Sparky, the family dog. He confides his innermost dream of traveling to the sun to Sparky and also tells him how badly he’d like to see what a fireplace looks like. The next morning the children discover that their snowman has vanished and in its place is just a scarf, a hat, and a small metal shovel half buried in the snow.

14. The Selfish Giant  (Pencil & Paints)
A grumpy giant lives in a house with a big garden and orders the children playing there to get out. He builds a high wall around his garden to keep out trespassers. Winter comes but when spring arrives it doesn’t thaw out the giant’s garden. After several years of unbroken winter, the giant almost freezes to death. Then one day a small part of the wall crumbles and a child wriggles through. Spring starts to break through the crack in the wall as well. The giant quickly tears down the wall and shares his garden with everyone.

15. Salvador and the Christmas Goose  (Pen & Paints)
Freezing cold comes early to Fuà this year killing all of Salvador’s mother’s geese except for one, the oldest and scrawniest. Salvador decides to give their last goose to the King as proof of his respect and admiration. The King is grateful and offers him a fine gift if he can solve a riddle. Quick-witted Salvador passes the test brilliantly and the King gives him six geese in return. The story spreads quickly and a nobleman tries to use the same method to get a gift from the King, but he can’t solve the riddle. Salvador is called in and once again comes up with a bright answer. The King offers him a dozen of his best geese every year. Years later Salvador becomes very famous as the founder of one of the most important families in the city of Fuà.

16.  The Violin’s Ghost  (Mixed Media)
Mr. Grisini decides to take up the violin. He buys an instrument and one day as he is practicing, a ghost appears. The screeching sounds of his violin always seem to conjure up the same gloomy specter, which always disappears through the same wall. One day, Mr. Grisini finally builds up the courage to knock a hole in the wall where he discovers a real treasure—a Stradivarius, the only one of its kind in the world. Ever since then, like magic, Mr. Grisini never again made that unbearable noise and became one of the greatest violinists of his times.

17. The Light  (Pencil & Paints)
Biel and his mother are so poor they have no home. One day they are caught in a downpour and take refuge in a seemingly abandoned house. Once inside, they hear the voice of a very old man calling out to them. He asks for light so that he can finish the book he is reading. Then he explains that he died 75 years ago, but couldn’t lay to rest until he finished his book. To reward Biel and his mother for their kindness, he directs them to a trap door in the house where there is a treasure chest full of gold coins. With the money, mother and son buy the rundown house and work hard to turn it into a very pretty farmhouse where they live happily ever after.

18. Fearless Peter  (Creative Crafts)
Fearless Peter is not afraid of anything, but he wants to find out what fear is so he sets out in search of it. He comes to a country ruled by three kings and fearlessly helps them kill three seemingly invincible giants. He then steals a magic salve from a witch who uses it to revive the giants. To prove the salve’s powers he tells the kings to cut off his head, certain that they can re-attach it with the salve, but the kings accidentally attach his head to his feet. Terrified, Peter asks them to cut his head off again and attach it to the right place. Peter can return home because he finally had a taste of fear.

19. Death for a Godfather  (Cut-Outs)
After making Ambrose an orphan, Death returns to become the baby’s godfather. Ambrose grows up to be the best doctor in the country, but he is aided in his diagnoses by Death. If the patient is to recover Death stands at the head of the patient’s bed but if the patient is to die, he stands at the foot of the bed. One day Dr. Ambrose is summoned by the King to cure his ill daughter Camilla. Dr. Ambrose and Camilla fall in love at first sight and when he sees death stand at the foot of the bed, he turns the bed around in a flash. Dr. Ambrose’s dirty trick on Death changes the patient’s fate and outrages Death. The doctor loses all his powers, but Princess Camilla recovers. Soon after, they marry and live happily ever after because Ambrose no longer has Death for a Godfather.

20. Hansel and Gretel  (Chocolate & Frostings)
Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the forest by their parents who are so poor they can no longer care for them. Lost and frightened they come upon a strange house made out of chocolate. As they are about to take a bite, the witch appears and puts Hansel in a cage to fatten him before cooking him and enslaves Gretel to do the housework. The children manage to escape in the nick of time and run deep into the forest. Suddenly, when they are more lost than ever, they hear a far-off voice calling out to them. It’s their father who comes looking for them and begs their forgiveness. Promising never to abandon them again, they live happily ever after.

21. The Sun and the Moon  (Finger Paints)
The Sun and the Moon used to live on the earth where the Sioux Indians had set their teepees. But things changed when the two came to realize that they were as different as night and day. They often argued until finally one day they had such a serious falling out that the Sun decided to move to the sky. When the Moon found out, it was beside itself with envy and decided to do the same thing. The Sun and the Moon never again exchanged another word and from that time on, the Moon follows the Sun wherever it goes, day after day.

22. Tsar Saltan  (Crafts & Cut-outs)
Tsar Saltan overhears three sisters talking. The youngest, Duchess Alexandra, says that if she were chosen to be the Tsar’s wife, she would wish nothing better than to become the mother of a handsome son who would be the best king in the world. The Tsar chooses her to be his bride. While he is away at war, she gives birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy. Her jealous sisters, green with envy, plot against the young queen, and as a result the Tsar orders Alexandra and her baby son Guidon to be sealed into a barrel and thrown into the sea. Years later, the barrel drifts onto an island. The boy, now a sturdy youth, saves a swan from a falcon. The swan turns out to be a magical bird and builds a golden palace for Guidon and his mother. Guidon becomes a wise king and his kingdom grows. When Tsar Saltan hears of the famous island he visits it and is reunited with his queen.

23. The Snake and the Maiden  (Natural Vegetation)
The seven tribes of Uagadu, one of the richest lands in Africa, all worshipped the snake Bida that brought the rains. In return, Bida asked them for one offering each spring -- to eat the prettiest maiden in the land. Each of the tribes took turns making the sacrifice until it was the turn of the Bambars. The tribal elders chose the beautiful 16-year-old Sia to be sacrificed, but Amadu was madly in love with her. To save her from such a dreadful fate, Amadu killed the snake. From that day on, drought turned Uagadu into a desert. The elders accused Amadu and Sia of treason and banished them. But the young couple found another land and lived happily ever after.

24. The Greedy Calculator  (Mixed Media)
Kutaka lives in India and is a disciple of the monk Luntika. One day, Luntika sends Kutaka to fetch some cakes from the other side of the city. Kutaka picks up eight cream tarts for Luntika, but on his way home, he is so tempted by the tarts that he decides that since the monk will surely share the cakes with him, half of the eight cakes will be for him and he eats four tarts. His hunger grows and he repeats the same calculation until only a half of a tart is left. But as he hands it over to Luntika, he decides it’s so small that he finishes it off. Luntika never sent him on an errand like that again.

25. The Thirsty Frog  (Mixed Media)
Tiddalik the frog was so thirsty, he drank all the water in the rivers and lakes of Australia, turning the land into a desert. One day, the wise old bat had an idea—if they could make Tiddalik laugh he would cough up all the water in his belly. Each of the animals tried to make Tiddalik laugh, but to no avail. At last it was the Eel’s turn. He did a funny snake routine, but only when he got so close to Tiddalik that the tip of his tail tickled his belly did the frog laugh. He laughed so hard that water started pouring out of his mouth and soon the rivers and lakes filled up again. Australia went back to being as beautiful as it had always been.

26.  The Clever Girl  (Fabric & Pen)
Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a rich man who had a wagon and a poor man who had a mare. One night, when the two men were lodged at the same inn, the poor man’s mare gave birth to a colt.  When the rich man saw what had happened, he grinned and told the poor man that his wagon had given birth to a colt. But certainly the mare was the mother of this colt, besides, it was impossible for a wagon to give birth to a horse. And this ridiculous argument was the start of a story that all the people in the land still remember with admiration--the story of The Clever Girl

27.  The Brown Cow  (Embroidery & Fabric)
Do you like stories? We seamstresses know lots and we love telling them while we sew.  Far away in Russia at the palace of a thousand colors, the Tsar and Tsarina lived with their young daughter.  Palace life was happy and peaceful until Irina’s mother died. Then Irina’s father married a wicked woman with three daughters.  To keep Irina far from home, the stepmother decided to make Irina take the herds out to pasture. Poor Irina had to spend the whole day in a meadow without any food and little clothing to keep her warm and we all know how cold Russia is!  Irina was so sad and lonely she soon started talking to a brown cow. She was telling the cow about her fears and worries when all of a sudden, the brown cow opened one of its big ears and invited the girl to step inside. Without a second thought, Irina let herself be sucked in...weeee!

28. The Magic Tree  (Paint on Parchment)
Ever since the dawn of time, some places have been luckier than others, I don’t know why. Our story happens in a far-off barren land scorched by the sun, even though it is between two great rivers, one to the East and one to the West. These rivers were dangerous places for the people and their herds because of the many wild beasts that went down to the water’s edge to quench their thirst  Standing under the shade of a huge tree, the only tree to be found in that vast plain, an abandoned young boy realized he was all alone in the world. His only company being his two goats. He could think of nothing to do but wail, “How will I get by all alone? I’m only a child. What can I do now?”

29.  Nasreddin's Path  (Colored Chalk)
Nasreddin was the youngest son of one of the wealthiest families in the Turkish city of Aksehir. One fine day, his father said to him, Nasreddin, a man must find his path in life. You’ll soon be twelve and it’s high time you made up your mind what you want to be.” But young Nasreddin didn’t know whether he wanted to be a soldier, a sailor, or a teacher. All these ideas twittered through his bird brained head. He thought to himself that if he traveled the world he might find a road sign posted with Nasreddin’s Path.

30. The Violin Story  (Sketch Painting)
It was eight in the morning and the underground was full of men wearing damp raincoats, women with umbrellas, children on their way to school, and  old folks who couldn’t sleep. Regina was with her mother and was a bit angry. She wished she could have slept in. Regina hated rainy days and hated the morning ride even more. Luckily, a man got on at the next step and started playing a musical instrument that Regina had never seen before. Regina couldn’t help staring at the man as she listened spellbound to the music. The other passengers could only hear the gypsy melody. But Regina heard the strange instrument’s voice as it spoke the following words, “Close your eye’s and listen to the violins story.

31. Mr. Nothing  (Watercolors)    (Newest Release)
Do you know Mr. Stern? Let me introduce him. Mr. Stern was a quiet, solitary sort of chap whose head was always in the clouds because he liked to think. He worked just hard enough to get by, neither more nor less. He lived in a city that was neither big nor small, and in a house that was almost empty because he thought that he needed practically nothing. Maybe that is why this story is entitled Mr. Nothing.

32. The Nightingale  (Cut-Outs, Crafts, Mechanicals)   (Newest Release)
The emperor’s palace in China was as luxurious as one could imagine. The walls were lined with the finest quality silk. The furniture was made of the most delicate porcelain and the most aromatic wood carved in the most delicate manner. In the garden, a nightingale sang the most beautiful songs that had ever been heard on earth.

33. Shall We Trade Legs?  (Colored Pens, Craft Paper)    (Newest Release)
This is the story of two animals that weren’t happy with their own bodies, especially with their legs. And it’s about how they decided to trade legs, and what happened when they did. In a great big forest there lived an elk that had very large antlers, a very furry back, and very, very long legs. The elk had a neighbor who was a fox and who had very sharp pointed ears, a very silky coat and very short legs.

34. The Ugly Martian  (Food & Natural Elements)    (Newest Release)
A long time ago in a far off galaxy there were three Martian eggs that were about to crack open. In just a few days three little Martians would be born. One of these Martians was The Ugly Martian.

35. The Ungrateful Jaguar  (Fabric & Crafts)    (Newest Release)
Once upon a time there was a jaguar. He was yellow with black spots. He was brave and determined like all jaguars. One day he was walking through the jungle when suddenly he fell into a trap.