Our absolute favorite is Beethoven Lives Upstairs: A Tale of Genius and Childhood. This story chronicles a young boy with twin sisters who is grieving the loss of his dad. Beethoven moves upstairs in his father's old office. The boy corresponds with his uncle about Beethoven's demanding, erratic behavior, but in the end, the boy learns to care for Beethoven and his quirkiness.
Another favorite is Song of the Unicorn: A Musical Journey Through Medieval Times. This one is a Merlin tale featuring Jeremy Irons, playing more than two dozen exerpts from the pre-Baroque era. There are Gregorian chants, Celtic songs, and traditional English songs. In this story, a young prince and princess must journey deep into the forest to find a unicorn to save their sick mother while avoiding Morgan-le-Fay who wants the unicorn for the power it will give her.
In Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery: A Tale of Venice and Violins, young orphan Katarina arrives at the orphanage where Vivaldi is the music director, accidentally breaks a treasured violin, and ends up searching throughout Venice for clues to her past.
We own eight out of the ten in this series. We also own:
*Mozart's Magic Fantasy: A Journey Through "The Magic Flute" (Introduces children to opera.)
*Tchaikovsky Discovers America: A Tale of Courage and Adventure
*Hallelujah Handel: A Tale of Music and Miracles (features Katarina from Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery)
*Mozart's Magnificent Voyage: Tales of the Dream Children
*Mr. Bach Comes to Call: An Adventure in Time and Space
We do not own A Classical Kids Christmas and Daydreams & Lullabies.
We often listen to these CDs while in the car on the way to the museum, the zoo, or any other location that is about 30 minutes away. Each CD is about 45 minutes long.
I highly recommend this series for all ages because, quite frankly, I like them, too, and it's fun to hear a song, later, and recognize it.
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