Reading Rainbow, My Shadow and Other Stories

In this episode of Reading Rainbow: Levar shows the kids how shadows and lights make up our everyday lives. Andrea Davis is featured as a photographer who shoots different parts of the city and develops the pictures in her own studio. Also, the children review the books SHADOWS AND REFLECTIONS I HAVE A FRIEND and SHADOW GRAPHS.

Levar Burton works out in a gym and talks about the determination it takes to succeed in sports. Burton narrates two poems from "Sports Pages” by Arnold Adoff. Burton visits with a young Olympic gymnast who talks about the preparation she must go through before competition. A music video illustrates a variety of sports activities. Burton talks to a brother-sister figure skating team, the skaters show how hard they must work to achieve their goals. Other featured books include "Miss Nelson has a Field Day", "Making the Team", "Soccer Sam", and "Sports".

LeVar shows how music can help interpret a situation, from meeting alligators in a Louisiana swamp to joining a party on a Mississippi riverboat. Fred Newman narrates the story of Mama Don't Allow, about how a young musician starts his own swamp band with his friends. Viewers are then treated to a recording session with Fred Newman as he makes up all the sound effects for the book, including the band's music.

LeVar travels to an old west town made to look like life in the 1880's to see how times have changed in the last 100 years. He explores how cowboys lived and traveled, and he also shows how stunt riders practice tricks on their horses for western movies. Hoyt Axton reads the featured book, a story told in comparisons about a rancher who decides to spend the day in a town 84 miles from home, and the strange happenings at his ranch back home while his wife stayed home to plant potatoes.

LeVar takes a shot at making his own pizza. He gets the yeast right, but he underestimates just about everything else. (That includes the volume of "vox pops" shots.) Josh Saviano reads Little Nino's Pizzeria, a story about a boy who works with his father at a neighborhood pizzeria when one day his father closes it up to work at a more fancy restaurant.

LeVar sets out to build a bird house, prompting an examination of animal habitats. Eartha Kitt reads the story of a growing hermit crab, who is now too large for his current shell, and all the difficulties he has trying to find a new place to live, all the while trying to avoid predators who want to eat him.