Grandpa's Story Collection and Related Family Friendly Online Stories for Kids

This is a sweetly old-fashioned product that will entrance some children but may not have enough pizazz to lure others away from their Game Boys or Nickelodeon. The stories on the CD are well voiced by Jamie Moore. Try before you buy by going to StoriesThatLift and letting the grands listen to a few stories for free.

Grandpa's Story Collection is a product from Tom Quigley, the founder of StoriesThatLift, a website offering family friendly online stories that are free and downloadable. Grandpa's Story Collection is a printed version of six of the stories, with attractive art and a CD.

Kudos are due to Quigley for promoting old-fashioned storytelling and virtuous behavior. The only question is whether kids who are used to a diet of video games and maniacally fast-paced TV shows will warm up to these gentle little stories. My younger grandchildren--four and five years old--did listen for quite a while before the attention span ebbed. But the older ones were not very interested.

The stories themselves are a mixed bag. Some of them were clearly created as vehicles for a message. One delightful exception was "The Bee's Long Ride," a story in verse by Quigley himself, which was fun to listen to and didn't have a heavy-handed message.

Overall this book and CD combo is much like those self-published books that you occasionally receive from friends. You can't really criticize the authors because, after all, they have written a book, something that many people aspire to do but very few pull off. But their books are not like the books at Barnes and Noble. Grandpa's Story Collection is similar. It's not shoddily done, but it's obviously not the product of a mainstream publishing house. Maybe that's a plus for some people. Moore does bring a professional-sounding quality to the CD. Youngsters will enjoy the way he voices the different characters.

I don't advise buying the book/CD combo without first going to the website and seeing if the grandkids enjoy the stories.

Why Especially Suited for Reading With Grandchildren

The stories demonstrate good values, and you have to admire a grandfather who is involved enough with his grandchildren to create stories for them.