Backwoods mountain woman Sally Ann Thunder and other legendary heroes such as Davy Crockett, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and John Henry are represented in American Tall Tales. Snively reenacts this collection of folk stories with a laid-back style and some funny rustic accents. The beloved Bambi is perhaps the most famous animal story ever written. Dolan movingly renders both suspense and pathos as he relays the adventures and dangers of a deer family that lives in the forest. In Classic Fairy Stories, Cribbins reads eight favorite fairy tales with such dramatic intensity and variety of voices that even Goldilocks and the Three Bears seems fresh and lively. Other popular stories, including The Three Little Pigs, Beauty and the Beast, and Jack and the Beanstalk, are coupled with lesser-knowns The History of Dick Whittington and The Princess on the Glass Hill. Appropriate classical music effectively punctuates each tale. The spellbinding Wonderful Wizard of Oz is read dramatically by British actor Ross, whose enchanting voice brings the story alive. Young listeners will be able to visualize their favorite characters, including Dorothy--whose encounters with well-meaning necromancers and Munchkins or the Wicked Witch and her minions--are both soothing and frightening.

This edition features Johnson and Fancher's illustrations from a 1999 "storybook adaptation" of Salten's classic story, which was first translated into English in 1928. The dark oil paintings match the tale's somber tone and respectfully portray the woodland setting and its inhabitants.

In 1999, Schulman adapted Salten's 1923 novel, bringing the original tale of a young deer's coming of age to a generation more familiar with the Disney animated version. Here, the woodland story, considered by many critics to be the first "ecological" novel, springs to life via Dolan's fine reading. Young listeners will be eager to follow along on Bambi's first frolics in the meadow, where he encounters a magpie, grasshoppers, butterflies and dandelions. By then, listeners will be hooked enough to stay with this recording as Bambi takes in stride the important, if somber, life lessons imparted by his mother, all the while trying to understand why "life is so difficult and dangerous." And when hunters encroach, taking his mother from him, Bambi knows he has to follow the advice of the stag known as the Great Prince: "Listen, smell and see for yourself; live by yourself; find out for yourself." Dolan's comfortable storytelling style conveys all the wonder, awe and self-discovery of the material and does not over-sentimentalize the deeper emotional current that comes with encountering death. A wide range of listeners will find much to appreciate in this more serious (compared to Disney's interpretation) look at a beloved children's character. Ages 6-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Jan.)