Billy Brown and the Frog Tunnel

A chap from Germany sent me Billy Brown and the Frog Tunnel, an audio CD from Kiddio Adventures. 

Kiddio makes CDs of stories you can listen to in the car, or whenever you feel like sharing a story with your child and don't want them to watch television.  Or maybe you don't want to read the book.  Maybe your throat hurts.

I was very enthused about the idea, because I had a love affair with Bullfrogs and Butterflies and those books that came with tapes and made a chiming sound when it was time to turn the page as a child.

We started out strong. We were driving to see my friend E's new baby girl.  E lives on the complete opposite side of Kansas City, near Colorado (not really), and there was plenty of time for a half-hour CD.  The little angel loved the intro song so much she requested it be repeated three times, until I put my foot down. 

She was not as enthused about the story.  The age range is from 3-7, but the story was very "civic duty" in nature, a story about a bear and a child who persuaded some construction workers to build a tunnel under the new road so the frogs could pass safely without getting hit by cars, since of course frogs do not know enough to look both ways.  A charming idea.

We didn't make it through the story.  She got bored.

It wasn't a bad story. The all-actor cast was good, although the construction workers did sound like something out of The Sopranos. I think the whole "mayor won't listen to us and now we have to defend the frogs ourselves" theme might have shot a little over a four-year-old's head.

However, I think it's a great idea, and we'll give it another listen in six months. I'll let you know if the outcome is then different.