A Pride of Literary Lions

By James Poniewozik

PBS's Between the Lions warns viewers that it contains "extreme silliness that may not be appropriate for adult audiences." That's a little white lie on the part of this imaginative literacy series for kids ages 4 to 7 (weekdays; check local listings). In fact, well aware that parents are part of the kiddie TV audience whether they like it or not, PBS has created a welcome thing in the age of Teletubbies and Barney--a fun educational show for kids with enough sops for adults to avoid inspiring a wave of vasectomies and tubal ligations.

Lions does keep its earnest goal upfront, introducing kids to books through a fuzzy feline family that runs a library (this being civic-institution-loving PBS) and reads--and lives out--a different story every episode. But the real stars are the words that the program's Sesame Street-esque skits, songs and cartoons cleverly bring to life, teaching kids to read along and sound out words onscreen. A Motown group, Martha Reader and the Vowelles, sings new vowel sounds; Dr. Ruth Wordheimer (played by Dr. Ruth Westheimer) helps patients deal with "long-word freak-out"; and in "Gawain's Word," a spoof on Wayne's World, jousting knights representing phonemes (sn and ooze for example) collide to make words (snooze for example).

Will kids get all the references? It's doubtful, but they'll laugh anyway. And considering the media saturation they grow up with now, from Nickelodeon to Pokemon, they may as well pick up a little pop-culture irony with their ABCs.

--By James Poniewozik