Product Details

• Directors: Mark Marquisee
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Master Communications, Inc.
• DVD Release Date: February 7, 2006
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000AOEPQQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,815 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

AWARD: 2002 KIDS FIRST!® Endorsed

Jessica, age 9, lives with her parents, grandmother and two sisters on a large dairy farm in western England. Prince Charles once made a visit there because he owns some of the land where the cows graze. Jessica's school field trip to the beach is shown, and she and her sisters marvel at the two-week-old chicks in their barn. Part of their house is 400 years old, but the family enjoys many modern conveniences.

Ten-year old James is the subject of the next segment. His family lives in Bath, which has an ancient heritage as an old Roman outpost. The ruins of the baths fed by hot springs still remain. But James also lives a modern life. His family is musical; his father creates scores for television programs and his grandfather is a professional bell ringer. James takes piano, clarinet and recorder lessons, and enjoys the music and activities at his church. Viewers can see the family enjoying dinner and visiting a local street fair, and we learn how religious freedom and democratic policies have attracted people to this country

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting and charming visit to two families in the UK, November 23, 2010

By 

jeijeiroja - See all my reviews

This review is from: Families of United Kingdom (Families of the World) (DVD)

This is a lovely video about the United Kingdom from *Families of the World,* and like the other films in this series, it's all about two kids, their families, and their daily lives. Jessica lives on a dairy farm in the west of England with her extended family on their ancestral lands, plus some they rent from Prince Charles. She is a cute kid who is almost overshadowed in her video profile by the adorable animals whom her family raises (primarily very young calves, at their most engaging). James is 10 and lives in Bath, an ancient seaside resort that is part of a modern city. The kids in our family were intrigued by James's narration about the freedoms that British subjects enjoy, which the kids recognized from our own Constitution. They were taken by the beautiful place where he lives and by the mix of the very old and the very new in his life and Jessica's.

Our kids noticed the differences in what people call everyday items (biscuits for cookies, orange squash for an orange juice drink, football for soccer) and were intrigued by the lives of two children who live surrounded by architecture and culture that seem much more storied than our own. This was a good issue to discuss after we all watched the video: What does it mean when we say a country has a culture? What does it mean if a country has a state church, but also has religious freedom? How do the freedoms of these English kids differ from our own, and how are they the same? The Teacher's Guide included with this video has other useful information about activities, history, and a complete transcript of the video narration, which is done by two kids and is in English. (My friends who are ESL teachers love these videos, because the narration is straightforward, interesting, and easy to follow.)

If you go on YouTube, two trailers are available from this video, one for Jessica's section of the film and one for James's: "Families of the United Kingdom (Families of the World)," Rural Trailer and Urban Trailer. Well worth watching, as is the full-length video. This is one of my favorites in this great series.