All Rise...

Judge David Johnson can play the violin with his tongue. Deal with it.

The Charge

Fifteen stories to encourage budding artists, musicians, and performers.

The Case

Scholastic has a triple pack of stories for your kiddos, all of which (tenuously) carry themes of creativity and artistic expression. Typically, these anthologies feature one headlining story that sticks to the theme and a handful of random stories to fill out the runtime. This is the case with this megaset as well, but there shouldn't be anything that your child will recoil at:

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin…and more stories for young musicians
• "Musical Max"
• "The Star-Spangled Banner"
• "Keeping House"
• "Patrick"
• "Apt. 3"

The Dot…and more stories for young artists
• "Art"
• "Ish"
• "Norman the Doorman"
• "Wallace's Lists"

Shrinking Violet…and more stories for young performers
• "Three Cheers for Catherine the Great"
• "Giraffes Can't Dance"
• "Amazing Grace"

As is the case, you get a variety of stories from different release years; newer productions are interspersed with old-school animations (going back to 1959's "Norman the Doorman"). It's all charming, and a preferred alternative to whatever Japanese card battler is making the Saturday morning rounds.

The specs: full frame. 2.0 stereo, an interview with "Art" author Patrick McDonnell and Spanish versions of "The Dot," "Ish," and "Amazing Grace."

The Verdict

Not, not, not Guilty!

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