SWEET LAND OF IMAGINATION

IN SEPTEMBER 2020

Stories to Stir the Imagination Series

Written by Allan Kelley,

Narrated by Frances Kelley

These volumes each include four stories told by Frances Kelley, a storyteller with a knack for choosing details that please the mind's eye. Kelley's talent lies not only in her excellent dramatic presentation (shrewd pacing keeps children listening intently), but also in her selection of detail. She creates just enough pictures to fire the imagination but never so many as to overwhelm it. Kelley also entertains by using a range of voices to depict characters, from gravelly male to high-pitched child. These satisfying volumes include such familiar characters as William Tell, greedy, gold-loving Midas, the Dutch boy who saves Holland by plugging a dike with his finger, and the Ugly Duckling, among others.

The Magician's Elephant

Written by Kate DiCamillo,

Narrated by Juliet Stevenson

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When a fortuneteller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortuneteller's mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true.

Babe (1995)

Gentle farmer Arthur Hoggett wins a piglet named Babe at a county fair. Narrowly escaping his fate as Christmas dinner when Farmer Hoggett decides to show him at the next fair, Babe bonds with motherly border collie, Fly, and discovers that he too can herd sheep. But will the other farm animals, including Fly's jealous husband Rex, accept a pig who doesn't conform to the farm's social hierarchy?

Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang (1968)

While truant from school, young siblings Jeremy and Jemima meet the beautiful Truly Scrumptious, who falls for their widowed father, Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke), and his various oddball inventions, including the family's noisy rebuilt car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. One day at the beach, Caractacus tells Truly and the children a fanciful fable about the villainous Baron Bomburst and his evil designs on the Potts family car.

Hans Christian Anderson (1952)

Imaginative cobbler Hans Christian Andersen (Danny Kaye) is asked to leave his hometown because his frequent stories are distracting the children from school. From there he moves to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he sees and falls in love with Doro, a ballerina. He writes "The Little Mermaid" for her, and it becomes the ballet's latest work. However, Doro is already married to Niels, meaning Hans must content himself with producing popular children's stories.

Miss Potter (2006)

Based on the life of early 20th-century author Beatrix Potter, creator of Peter Rabbit. As a young woman Potter rails against her parents' wishes for her to marry and settle down. Instead, she continues to write about and draw the animals she has adored since childhood. Her early attempts to find a publisher for her children's stories are unsuccessful, but an offer from a small firm will turn her into a literary phenomenon.

Hugo (2011)

Orphaned and alone except for an uncle, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. Hugo's job is to oil and maintain the station's clocks, but to him, his more important task is to protect a broken automaton and notebook left to him by his late father (Jude Law). Accompanied by the goddaughter (Chloë Grace Moretz) of an embittered toy merchant (Ben Kingsley), Hugo embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find a place he can call home.