Customer Reviews

Pete's a Pizza... and More William Steig Stories (Scholastic Video Collection)

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My kids (ages 2,4,6) love this DVD. It is filled with great stories by William Steig. If you are not familiar with his stories - you may know him as the author who created Shrek. These stories are gems - very enjoyable children's stories that really entertain and contain some type of moral or lesson- in a very subtle way. Pete's a Pizza (narr. by Chevy Chase) tells about a boy who is feeling glum and his parents pretend to make him into a pizza by rolling him, etc. Really cute family story. Doctor DeSoto is great - mouse dentist and wife who are visited by a fox with a toothache. The Amazing Bone is narrated by John Lithgow- charming story. The bonus stories (not W. Steig) are just as good as the other stories. The Three Robbers- about three robbers who stop robbing and open a home for children. Great White Man Eating Shark - about a boy who wears a shark fin to scare away other swimmers.... This is one of THE BEST Scholastic book videos. Great animation, music, etc. I am buying another copy to keep on hand...we love it that much!

William Steig is pure gold, as always! Pete is grumpy because it's raining and he can't play outside. His father has an idea: Maybe Pete would enjoy being made into a pizza! Dad takes Pete over to the table, rolls the dough and throws Pete up in the air like a pizza maker would do; then he sprinkles water for oil, paper bits and talcum powder for cheese, puts him in the "oven" (the sofa) to bake, then cuts him up. There's some unpizza like tickling involved, too. This story is imaginative, fun and tender.

The next two stories are ones which I to my kids many times when they were young. Doctor DeSoto, a mouse dentist of wide repute, works with his wife on animals of all sizes--just not dangerous ones. One day he takes pity on a suffering fox, though, giving him the very best treatment, as always. He and his wife come up with an ingenious way to escape harm to themselves and to out fox the fox. This is a true Steig classic. The good Dr. DeSoto shows up in a later book, too, called, "Dr. DeSoto goes to Africa".

In Amazing Bone, Pearl,a young girl pig dawdles on her way to school, and finds a talking bone in the the lovely spring woods. Pearl encounters other adventures, and the bone ends up saving her life more than once, and also becomes a part of the pig family. I love the part where the bone defeats a fox by conjuring up a magic spell. Narrator John Lithgow hams it up like I always did when I read this book to my boys.

Steig is truly a favorite of ours. Many people know "Shrek", though they don't know Stieg. He wrote several award-winning books, a couple of our favorites being "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble", and the chapter book "Abel's Island". This DVD includes a short appearance by the author in his own environment, which I also enjoyed.

Three other short videos are included. They are good, but rather dated. Each one had a nice message, without being preachy.

William Stieg Rocks! (I've gotten a few of the other Scholastic Videos, and they are also great!)

If you are looking for a movie to accompany a William Steig favorite--this is it! Pete's A Pizza and other classics are read aloud in celebrity voices (such as Chevy Chase and others). It's something a little different and the kids in my class really enjoyed it!

I loved the book and had wanted this for a long time. Luckily I ran across the DVD at a second hand store. I would have paid full price for it though! There are 6 stories, about 10 minutes each. These kind of dvd's are great to have when the kids want to watch something but don't have time to start a full length movie. They are classic stories but I was worried at first they might be to edgy for my girls. A fox trying to eat a mouse, a fox kidnapping and trying to eat a crying pig, robbers. But my 4 and 6 yr. old seemed unfazed and loved the story about the shark-boy scaring everyone.

Couldn't agree more with the previous reviewer. I'm an elementary library media specialist. These are among my favorite stories for read alouds, and they are marvelously done. Chevy Chase, Ian Thompson, and John Lithgow are perfect for Steig stories. John Lithgow's rendition of the Magic Bone is perfect. Kids want to watch all of them over and over. Anybody that appreciates picture books, 3 to 93, is going to like these readings. And for 12.99 they are a steal.