Year-Round Programs for Young Players

School Library Journal

Gr 3-7 A collection of 100 plays, skits, poems, choral readings and other dramatic presentations that attempts to meet the demand for holiday program material for children. However, the pieces are, for the most part, disappointingly dated and unexciting. One of the notable exceptions is ``Sing the Songs of Lincoln,'' in which the author creatively combines the music of Lincoln's day, historical information and interesting drama. More common are plays like ``I Have a Dream'' which are pedantic: they tell, tell, tell, often using an M.C. instead of working historical information in naturally and artfully. A format used several times follows the stale pattern of ``M is for the many. . . . O is for. . . .'' At least one selection, ``Voting Day,'' is inaccurate: ``We cannot vote, it's sad to note, /until we're twenty-one.'' Wonder what happened to the 26th Amendment ratified in 1971? Do you need this collection? Check your shelveschances are you'll find a couple much like it there already. Lee Bock, Brown County Public Libraries, Green Bay, Wis.