Readeez Is a Breezeez

I feel I must apologize for a week's hiatus (although I don't want to become one of those people who blog about blogging). It's a perfect storm here at our house between 1) a few deadlines for not one but three film criticism papers I'd like to publish this spring, 2) writing scripts and preparing for next month's KidScreen Summit (which means I started watching tween sitcoms), and 3) the kindergarten applications hitting the fan as we try to navigate this beautiful system called the New York City Department of Education. I could launch a blog just about that, but I limited myself to a facebook group instead (parents of Washington Heights/Inwood, unite!).

But in that time I've also done something quite rewarding, which is watch quite a few Readeez with Loretta. I'm grateful for Michael Rachap, Readeez's creator who hails from my old stomping ground near downtown Atlanta, for letting me know about this new DVD series, the first of which was released back in October. Here's a picture of Michael, a single father, and his daughter in Readeez character (that's Julian and Isabel) and seen through the eyes of illustrator Gerry O'Neill:

The DVD contains a series of short vignettes, together lasting about forty minutes. They feature O'Neill's still characters and limited AfterEffects-type animation (i.e. moving things around the screen but no full motion). The illustrations and layout, by the way, are crisp and tranquil--perfect. But the hook is in the presentation of written words in perfect synchronization with the characters' voice over. If Julian says, "How now, brown cow?" then that's what you see as well, timed exactly as he says it. He never does say that specifically, but the DVD does present original and well-known songs, rhymes, and sharp dialogue (Isabel is particularly articulate for six). None of them are available for embedding, but nine can be seen on this page of the company's website.

Rachap is a musician as well as dad and filmmaker, and his songs are well vetted: they're catchy and upbeat, use limited and memorable vocabulary, and display a fairly wide variety of styles and even instrumentation. Loretta most likes "How 'Bout That Cow?," "Hangin' Around," and the standard "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," all of which are available on the website. But I should add that I've had the song "Sandy Beach" in my head for three days now.

The words certainly don't pander to beginning readers; there's some challenging stuff here, and it comes quickly. The first time we watched the DVD we hit a rhythm about halfway through wherein the characters said a line and I paused the disc for Loretta to repeat it before allowing them to go on. That might not be quite how Rachap envisioned the process, but when we did it this way Loretta got so excited, so into it, that she bounded off the couch and was bouncing and dancing right in front of the television. This was also the first time we watched it, and I think that on subsequent viewings, when she knows the tunes and basic words (particularly in the spoken portions), she'll be able to keep up and go at the film's pace. She'll also start reading more and more of the words on the screen. At present, given our Pre-K reading level (I'm not technically what level that is), I pointed out some words to her, like the one-letter difference between "how" and "cow," but eventually thought it more important to let her go along with the words first before trying too hard to reinforce the phonics and/or sight words. After all, the show's slogan is that it's "learning disguised as smiling." And Loretta was definitely smiling. I actually started writing this post two days ago but when she walked through the room and saw the Readeez website open she yelled, "Readeez!" and wedged herself between me and the computer. Another twenty minutes were spent going through them, and now I'm writing this late on a Thursday night when she can't interfere!

The report then is that Readeez are immensely enjoyable, even addictive. The relationship between Julian and Isabel is fantastic, the loving coyness that evolves when your child can verbally spar with you and hold her own. The typeface is clear and large but unobtrusive, and there's no way children can be watching it and not be absorbing the relationship between the spoken words and the letters onscreen, even if like Loretta they're not sounding out the words as they go. As a parent I see the potential for the series to be my ability to control it (something true of the disc but not of the online vids), to pause and rewind and sound things out and point out spelling patterns and so on. As a filmmaker I think Readeez's greatest potential might be as a television interstitial: they're the right length, they're easily identifiable with strong characters, they're (relatively) cheap to produce (Michael can dispute me on that one), and they have a hook that will hold up across a long time. I could easily see this fitting in with interstitials on Noggin, Sprout, Nick Jr., and Playhouse Disney (Moose A. Moose, Emily Yeung, Can You Teach My Alligator Manners?, Peppa Pig and the like): A twenty-two minute show ends, kids are sad because it's the credits, up pops Isabel and the big bold letters I-S-A-B-E-L, and the kids jump up and, like Loretta, yell, "Readeez!" because they know they'll have three or five more minutes of great fun. Then you (meaning the broadcaster) can repeat throughout the day and week, cluster learning objectives, and spread out contrasting episodes like Rachap's live-action singing, spoken repartees, and so forth. That would seem sufficient in itself, but remember there's great potential in interstitials: that's how The Wonder Pets and quite a few other shows began life.

Not that the DVD is bad, of course. It's great fun to be able to go through the whole forty minutes, uninterrupted. The first volume sells for $18 from the company's website, and a second installment is expected in the spring. In addition to the existing Geometreez and Wordeez and other vignettes, it will introduce Historeez, Matheez, Jokeez, Mystereez and TongueTwisteez. Take the time to check out the website and consider purchasing the whole DVD; Readeez provides a calm yet articulate alternative to much of the frenetic entertainment children consume. For me, the underlying story is not about literacy but about the relationship between a father and a daughter, enjoying each other and making something wonderful, whether it be their relationship, a DVD, a word, or a song. And that is timeless.