SCHOLASTIC BRINGS CHILDREN'S CLASSICS TO HOME VIDEO.

Byline: Chris J. Parker Correspondent

Scholastic Inc. has been filling children's bookshelves for more than 80 years. Now it's going after the family entertainment center.

The $2 billion multimedia company launches a new video series Tuesday that brings to life some of its most popular picture books. Each videocassette (or DVD) includes at least three stories, retold in animated form but precisely adapted from the original books.

The animated stories have actually been seen in classrooms across the country for years. Weston Woods Studios has been reproducing children's books into animated shorts as a complement to classroom reading instruction for nearly 50 years.

The Scholastic Video Collection marks the first time the animated shorts have been available in retail stores. The suggested price is $9.95 each. The DVDs have a $14.95 suggested retail price and include a feature that allows children to read along with the narrator, in addition to other extras.

More videos in the series - including Crocket Johnson's ``Harold and the Purple Crayon'' and Gene Zion's ``Harry the Dirty Dog'' - are already planned for 2003 and beyond.

Here are reviews of three of the new videos:

``Chrysanthemum'' - Three and one half stars

Kevin Henkes wonderful story about a little girl who loves her name, then doesn't, then loves it again, is perfectly adapted. Academy Award- winning actress Meryl Streep narrates and provides the voice for all the characters - including Chrysanthemum's dad and her nemesis, Victoria - while the music score from composer Ernest V. Troost perfectly captures Chrysanthemum's emotional highs and lows.

The video includes ``Owen,'' which is narrated by Emmy Award-winning actress Sarah Jessica Parker, and ``A Weekend With Wendell,'' narrated by actress Mary Beth Hurt. The DVD includes extra shorts: ``Picnic,'' ``Monty'' and ``The Wizard.''

``Where the Wild Things Are'' - Three stars

Maurice Sendak's classic tale of Max's journey to an island inhabited by strange creatures - and his return home in time for dinner - is well-done. But the strength of this video is the nearly 30-year-old collection of musical shorts, ``The Nutshell Kids.''

Sendak teamed with songwriter Carole King for the 1975 television special ``Really Rosie.'' Four of the animated shorts are included on this video: ``Alligators All Around,'' ``Pierre,'' ``One Was Johnny'' and ``Chicken Soup With Rice.'' Each one is a small treasure, enjoyable for parents and their children, who probably think the mid-'70s are ancient history.

The collection also includes Sendak's ``In the Night Kitchen,'' which is narrated by composer Peter Schickele, who also narrated and wrote the music for this version of ``Where the Wild Things Are.''

``Chicka Chicka Boom Boom'' - Two and one half star

``Chicka Chicka Boom Boom'' is one of the most clever and fun children's books ever published. Writen by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault and illustrated by Lois Ehlert, the simple, rhythmic text has been teaching kids the alphabet - and keeping parents entertained - since it was first published in 1991.

The video version is just as fun, thanks to a tropical beat that stays true to the original.

Unfortunately, the rest of the video isn't nearly as entertaining. ``Trashy Town,'' from illustrator Dan Yaccarino, is monotonous; ``Rosie's Walk,'' by Pat Hutchins, is boring in the video version; and ``The Caterpillar and the Polliwog,'' by Jack Kent, seems amateurish.

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