Parents need to know that children might already be familiar with the stories featured in this collection of short videos based on Maurice Sendak books. The videos are designed to complement, rather than replace, the featured books. In one story, Pierre, the boy behaves very poorly, including being disrespectful toward his parents, and then is eaten by a lion (though he lives to reform his ways). In another story, In the Night Kitchen, the boy briefly appears naked, which might produce some giggles from young viewers.
Educational value:Three of the shorts, all based on the Nutshell Kids book series, teach the alphabet, numbers, and the names of the months in a musical and humorous way.
Positive messages:Each story has some positive message embedded. The most obvious message comes from "Pierre," whose bad behavior and general apathy gets him into trouble until he reforms his ways. None of the videos features a character of color, and only one video has female characters (and they're in the background).
Positive role models:The point of Pierre's story is to encourage kids to not emulate the character.
Violence & scariness:In "Pierre," the badly behaved child gets eaten by a lion when he's left home along. He ends up alive, but very sensitive children might be disturbed.
Sexy stuff:Brief full-frontal male nudity in "In the Night Kitchen" in a totally non-sexual context.
Language:Pierre repeats "I don't care" constantly.
Consumerism:Films are based on Scholastic books, and the DVD comes with an insert advertising additional videos to buy.
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Where the Wild Things Are & 5 More Videos contains porn & is inappropriate
The full frontal nudity is extremely inappropriate in a video that has been made of a time-honored children's classic story. It was also extremely unnecessary in that it has nothing to do with the story. Why couldn't he tumble out of bed into the kitchen while wearing his pajamas? Scholastic has deliberately introduced what is, clearly, pornography, into a children's classic that was published by a trusted source. Is introducing porn to children now your new corporate policy, Scholastic? Is this your real goal now - to desensitize the kids to porn? By the way, I have a Masters degree in Library Science with a concentration in Children's Literature. There is no excuse for your having done this. Nor is there any excuse for the way you have marketed it as normal, especially to teachers, librarians, parents, and children who trust your company. Shame on you, Scholastic!