Pete's a Pizza... and More William Steig Stories (Scholastic Video Collection)

The excellent Scholastic Video Collection spotlights the author of Shrek, William Steig. The title story is one of his warmest and most uncharacteristic--a simple story about how parents find a fun activity for their bored son by imagining him as a pizza. The other stories, "Doctor De Soto" and "The Amazing Bone," have more typical Steig bite; the former (an Oscar nominee) is about a mouse-dentist who takes on a risky patient, while the latter tells of Pearl the Pig who finds a talking bone. All three stories are wonderfully illustrated, and Chevy Chase ("Pizza") and John Lithgow ("Bone") supply pitch-perfect narration. As with all the DVDs in this collection, the added content doubles the running time. Three additional stories keep the rambunctious air that made Steig (like Roald Dahl) so popular with kids and adults, although sensitive kids and parents might find the perilous situations unfunny. Tomi Ungerer's "The Three Robbers" and "Moon Man" bookend Margaret Mahy's "The Great White Man-Eating Shark," which follows a boy who pretends to be a shark and scares beachgoers. All in all, another winner for kids ages 4 and older. --Doug Thomas

Pete's a Pizza... and More William Steig Stories (Scholastic Video Collection) [DVD]