Educational Media Reviews Online

This video series is a fun, entertaining, and quite interesting set of adventures that features Daniel Cook, an effervescent and vivacious six year old boy as he sets about discovering and experiencing a wide array of jobs, arts, sports, and parts of the world in general. Each videotape contains five, six minute episodes where Daniel encounters an adult who teaches him how to do a task, or how to understand something. While viewing three of the thirteen part series, I watched Daniel creating food (cookies, ice cream, pie, chocolate candy, and pizza); practicing language arts (creating stories, creating poetry, making a book, making the video, and visiting the library); and connecting with our world (on a tall ship, tasting new and exotic fruits, at a medieval times restaurant, learning about Egypt, and making a gingerbread house). He is at once polite, curious, exuberant and expressive all the while introducing young viewers to new and exciting parts of life. Of course, this isn’t exactly difficult for a six year old to do when placed in these types of circumstances. Nor is it difficult to keep the audience engaged and interested with the rather short six minute time frame. These videos are great for pre-K levels. Additionally, kids from fourth grade and under might find them somewhat intriguing. The ideal library niche for this set is a public library or early childhood learning center that might use them for both entertainment and inspiration.