Plays Children Love: Volume II: A Treasury of Contemporary and Classic Plays for Children [Paperback]

Coleman Jennings (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1992 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Plays Children Love (Book 2)

This beloved anthology, a favorite of students, teachers, parents, and dramatists for decades, offers a collection of twenty plays to be performed for young audiences or by child actors.

Plays Children Love: Volume II—replacing the earlier volume, which is now out of print—adheres to the same format of Jennings and Harris' earlier classic: a choice of plays for adults to perform for children as well as a choice of plays for kids to produce and perform themselves. Among the favorites collected here: Charlotte's Web, The Wizard of Oz, Treasure Island, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, and Jim Thorpe, All-American.

With an extensive introduction detailing the special needs of producing plays for children, and with many insightful instructions for helping children get the most out of producing plays themselves, this book is a solid asset for all classrooms, children's theatre groups, school libraries, education seminars, playwrighting workshops, and the like.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The most complete guide available on all aspects of children's theater."—Clarus: Words and Music for Young People

About the Author

Coleman A. Jennings, Ph.D, is a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. A pioneering scholar and mentor in both the study and advocacy of performing arts for children, he has taught courses in creative drama, theater for young audiences, and children's dramatic literature at UT-Austin since 1963. His many other anthologies include Theatre for Young Audiences: 20 Great Plays for Children, Eight Plays for Children: The New Generation Play Project; and Theatre for Youth: Twelve Plays with Mature Themes.

Aurand Harris is the most produced playwright for young audiences in the United States, with more than 30 published plays to his credit. Before his death in 1996, he was the first children's playwright to receive a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the first to win the Charolette Chorpenning Cup from the American Theatre Association. His widely revered plays include The Arkansaw Bear, Androcles and the Lion, Rags to Riches, The Tobey Show, Monkey Magic, Pinballs, and The Orphan Train. Harris also wrote stage adaptations for such well-known stories as Pocohantas and The Magician's Nephew.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (November 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312079737
• ISBN-13: 978-0312079734
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #128,978 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #28 in Books > Children's Books > Arts, Crafts & Music > Performing Arts > Drama & Theater

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Resource for Staging Plays with Kids, March 12, 2002

By 

Tracy Hoffmann (Downingtown, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Plays Children Love: Volume II: A Treasury of Contemporary and Classic Plays for Children (Paperback)

This collection provides a good mix of large and small group plays, including The Wizard of Oz, Treasure Island and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It might not be great theater, but it gave the elementary school kids I was working with a chance to perform a familiar story without a million rehearsals. The lines are manageable and the kids weren't put off by having to learn long speeches.

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars N ot impressed, July 28, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Plays Children Love: Volume II: A Treasury of Contemporary and Classic Plays for Children (Paperback)

Disappointing. Only a small portion of the book is devoted to plays that children can perform themselves. The handful of plays in this section provide a good example of the multiculturism fad in kids' books these days. The plays are identified as coming from several different countries. But this supposedly diverse group of plays is uniformly unentertaining, with little or no educational content.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Variety, January 9, 2007

By 

S. Berry (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Plays Children Love: Volume II: A Treasury of Contemporary and Classic Plays for Children (Paperback)

I love all of the different types of plays. I am using the second section of plays for children. The narration is perfect, and the lines are often funny. My students love the play, "How the First Letter Was Written." It's a great source.