WORLD TALES VOLUME II A Mosaic of Stories and Music from Around the World

The tales in this collection come from Ireland, Japan, Mexico, and even Ghana. Each is accompanied by original music on instruments traditional to the country of the story's origin. "The Red Bird" even has jungle sound effects! Randy Armstrong supplies much of the music, which is varied and entertaining but is recorded at such a high level that it drowns out the narration. Genevieve Aichele's narration moves at a breakneck pace and sometimes starts to sound like that of a newscaster rattling off the latest story. That being said, the recording is interesting and charming. These are not the same old rehashed stories from around the world, which makes this a good volume to augment a children's audio collection. A.H.A. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]