In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Roald Dahl’s birth, film and television personalities take turns championing their favourite of Dahl's 10 best-selling children’s books, culminating in a nationwide vote. Rik Mayall reads from George’s Marvellous Medicine.
An intimate portrait of Eric Carle, creator of more than 70 books for children including the best-selling "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". At 82, Eric is still at work in his studio making books and creating art. As he methodically layers a tissue paper collage of the caterpillar, he describes the feeling he achieves working in his studio, the sense of being at peace, all alone, when everything grows quiet and it is just himself and his work. The film taps into that deep creative need in each of us, a spirit that started in Eric as a very young child and is unceasing today.
From 1945 to 1989, after the capitulation of Nazi Germany, two rival ideologies, communism and capitalism, faced each other in a merciless battle. On one side of the Iron Curtain and on the other, throughout the Cold War, the USSR and the United States sought to shape children’s imaginations through their magazines and films. Never in the history of mankind have so many comic books been published and so many cartoons produced for young people. In November 1989, communism collapsed with the Berlin Wall; capitalism was left to decide the future of the world. What if this victory had been prepared for a long time, and our thinking conditioned, from our early childhood, to ensure this absolute triumph?
To celebrate her 80th birthday, the Queen is holding a children's party in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. She has invited many classic characters from British children's literature. But when the baddies, led by Cruella de Vil, discover that they have not been invited, they steal the Queen's handbag containing her spectacles and the text of her speech; without it, the Queen will not be able to make a speech at the party. Can the goodies find the handbag in time?
Ted Hughes's 1993 novel The Iron Woman is the springboard for this multi-media project by Mikhail Karikis. The video section of the installation features seven-year-olds from Mayflower Primary School in East London discussing the novel's environmental themes.
Children’s Book Press, winner of the San Francisco Foundation 2009 Community Leadership Awards (The San Francisco Foundation Award) – the first independent, nonprofit publisher of bilingual, multicultural books and stories for children. In the past 33 years, it has served as a vehicle for civil rights, human rights, and social justice, with a profound impact on the children, youth, and adults who better understand their own lives and histories as a result of its books. Childrens Book Press builds the connection between literacy and success, preserves traditions, and helps build a stronger future for our children.
Lynne Cherry is an author, illustrator, environmentalist, and naturalist. This documentary covers an assortment of her books and activism to save the Belt woods.
A compilation of four Mother Goose stories "photographed in three-dimensional animation" and unified by a prologue and an epilogue with Mother Goose herself magically setting up a projector to show the films. The familiar nursery rhymes are "Little Miss Muffet," "Old Mother Hubbard," "The Queen of Hearts," and "Humpty Dumpty." Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2004.
Moomintroll is heading home to Moominmamma with milk. On the way there, he meets Mymble looking for his little Sister . Together they set out to find her. Based on Tove Jansson's first Moomin book.
One class of school children from a small village make the trip to Zagreb. One of the boys gets sick and the class is forced to go home. During their journey the train gets stuck in a snowstorm.
Max imagines running away from his mom and sailing to a far-off land where large talking beasts—Ira, Carol, Douglas, the Bull, Judith and Alexander—crown him as their king, play rumpus, build forts and discover secret hideaways.
A small-town shoemaker with a knack for spinning yarns, Hans encounters happiness and heartbreak on his road to becoming a full-fledged writer.
In Bamse and the Witch’s daughter Croesus Vole finds gold in the beavers' dam. To demolish the dam and get the gold he tricks the witch's daughter Lova to enchant Bamse. With Bamse gone, it's up to the children to help each other to stop Croesus - but to do that they have to be friends.
Sam, a neurodivergent man, has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. But as Lucy grows up, Sam's limitations as a parent start to become a problem and the authorities take her away. Sam convinces high-priced lawyer Rita to take his case pro bono and in turn teaches her the value of love and family.
A TV adaptation of Roald Dahl's classic book.
A fairy tale set in the bucolic countryside of Central Europe at the turn of the 20th century. Anka, an orphan girl, bravely sets off in the pursuit of a home, facing the hardships of life, and ultimately finds her place with the help of a magical world and its mysterious creatures.
A young British widow rents a seaside cottage and soon becomes haunted by the ghost of its former owner.
Adam, a lonely man with Asperger's Syndrome, develops a relationship with his upstairs neighbor, Beth.
Ignored by her class, Miss Nelson mysteriously disappears one day, and the poisonous "Miss Swamp" takes over the class. The students suddenly realize they really like Miss Nelson and a search begins to find her.
A poignant biography of one of the most successful and wildly-read writers of the 20th century. Her stories enthralled children everywhere but her personal struggles often proved too much.