Media Review: Wonder Pets

Book #54

Book Image:

Bibliographic Citation: 
Nick Jr. (2009) Wonder Pets:Big Missions, Little Heroes! United States: Nickelodeon.

Age Group:
Toddler to Preschool
 

Genre:
Fiction
 

Awards:
Here is a list of the awards and nominations: Wonder Pets Awards and Nominations

Topics/Issues: 
Early Reading Skills, Music Appreciation, Teamwork
 

ELS promoted: 
Phonological awareness, vocabulary, 

Format: 
DVD
 

Author/Illustrator sites:
 http://www.nickjr.com/wonder-pets/

Categorization Tags:
E Wonderpets
 

Annotation: 
Turtle tuck, Linny the Guinea Pig, and Ming Ming the duckling travel the world to save other animals in need of help.

Reactions/Observations:

Turtle tuck, Linny the Guinea Pig, and Ming Ming the duckling travel the world to save other animals in need of help. Through the power of teamwork, these classroom pets find a way to save the day and teach an important lesson about empathy and friendship. At the beginning of each episode, a bulleted list appears to point out the many benefits of this unique children’s show: early reading skills, music appreciation, and teamwork! In the episodes I previewed, the Wonder Pets ventured out to help a donkey actor who was not prepared for a play. A discussion about what it meant to be “prepared” followed as well as demonstrating how to become prepared for the show.

Targeted for preschoolers, Wonder Pets is a Nick Jr. show animated with photo puppetry. It gives a striking effect of real life images of animals animated to tell a story. Each episode is reminiscent of an opera or a musical theater show. The majority of the dialogue is sung to original scores. Singing allows children to hear the smaller sounds that make up words. Due to the opera like quality, the musical dialogue is able to promote phonological awareness with the over dramatized dialogue and lyrics. The choice in terminology in both song and dialogue further promoted early literacy. The terminology was not oversimplified resulting in an opportunity to build vocabulary. As a digital early learning resource, this TV show scores high. The opera is charming and hard to forget. Wonder Pets is an easy show to like. Parents will find this show easy to watch and a delight to share. The recommended age group for this series is 3-5 years old.