Magic Tree House Collection, Books 30-32

April 1, 2005
PreS-Gr 5 -Full of kid appeal and frenetic energy, this album of stories and songs from Charlie "The Noise Guy" Williams will entertain the entire family. Mixing vocally produced sound effects with crazy voices and funny, fast-paced storytelling, Williams puts his own spin on the stories of "Rumplestiltskin," "The Tortoise and the Hare," "The Brementown Musicians," and "Jack and the Beanstalk." Songs such as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" are also included, each produced entirely from vocal effects. Kids will giggle not only at the cool sounds, but also at the hip modern touches such as the miller using e-mail to tell the king about his valley-girl daughter Buffy in "Rumplestiltskin," the tortoise and the hare racing cars, and Jack using a chainsaw to cut down the beanstalk. The crazy voices and sounds may grate on adults' nerves at first, but when they realize the extent of the humor cleverly laced into the stories -the Brementown donkey sounds remarkably like Jimmy Stewart, and Jack's voice is a dead ringer for Jack Nicholson -they will quickly join in the fun. A fun and funny collection destined to appeal to a wide variety of age groups, and to make listeners wonder, "How does he do that?" -"Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Maryland School for the Deaf, Columbia"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.