Classical Kids Storytime from MPR

I listen to National Public Radio all the time. It is my favorite source of news and music. But I don’t just listen to my local NPR station (Colorado Public Radio, which is awesome). When I am working at home, I often listen to Minnesota Public Radio’s Classical and Choral Music streams (they also have a wonderful holiday music stream at Christmas time). Even though I haven’t lived there in nearly 20 years, listening to the local news for Minnesota takes me back to my years of living in Northfield and Faribault… sigh.

This summer I discovered MPR’s new feature — Classical Kids Storytime — and our whole family loves it! At this writing there are four classic children’s stories available — Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, The Three Little Pigs, and The Night Before Christmas. Each story is presented radio-theater style with wonderful classical music enhancing and advancing the stories.

Cinderella presents the story as told in Rossini’s opera which is fun and funny. The Little Mermaid is updated and multi-dimensional. And rhyming version of The Three Little Pigs has a great lesson — “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”

Lynne Warfel records most of them together with other familiar radio voices. The storytelling is charming, and parents, these recordings won’t get old fast!

Here’s the best part: they are all available to download for free! So you can play them on your phone or in the car — that’s what we do! This morning we listened to The Three Little Pigs twice on the way to school.

I love public radio, and this is yet another example of radio done well. Enjoy!