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Piñata Party

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PreS-Gr 3—Moona Luna, the Brooklyn-based music combo consisting of Sandra Velasquez and her bandmates, present a bilingual album of 11 original songs and an upbeat version of "De colores," a traditional Latin-American folk song. Several songs are featured in both English and Spanish. In a few songs, the English translation is somewhat awkward and loses the musical flow, such as in "Mama, no me quiero dormer (Mama, I Don't Want to Sleep)." Other songs are great in both languages, such as "Brinca, Jump," which features Dan Zanes and will have listeners wanting to participate. "Tomorrow's Another Day (Mañana es otro día)" offers an optimistic message. "Don't Ever Give Up" is exclusively in English, and the lyric complexity falls short. Among the other songs are "We're Gonna Take a Trip (Vamos a Viajar)," "Todas las comidas (All the Foods)," and "Te amo (I Love You)." The live instrumentation features accordion-based music, reminiscent of a Mexican genre called norteño. The CD's production quality and vocals are terrific and will inspire audiences to dance and sing along. A solid choice for libraries.—Caitlyn Walsh, Fayetteville Public Library, AR
In this beautiful, heartrending, yet horrifying film, North Koreans tell their stories of imprisonment, sexual slavery, torture, murder, and escape to China or South Korea during the nearly 50-year regime of Kim Il Sung (1912—94). The interviews are illustrated through the interspersion of dance sequences, archival news footage, and drawings. Particularly interesting are the North Korean propaganda films celebrating Kim Il Sung as God and showing in the face of mass starvation happy workers, elaborate military displays, and the creation of a new flower in 1988 in honor of the 46th birthday of Kim's son and successor, Kim Jong Il. A valuable time line traces 20th-century events in Korea. Bonus features include previously unreleased footage of camp refugees. This mesmerizing film displays excellent production values and is highly recommended for Asia collections.—Kitty Chen Dean, formerly with Nassau Community Coll., Garden City, NY
Reviewed by Kitty Chen Dean , Jun 01, 2011

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