Storyline Online is a SAG-AFTRA-produced website with videos of actors and actresses reading well-known picture books aloud. I’ll occasionally take my students to the website and they seem to like it quite a bit.
After watching all the videos, here are my completely biased and in no way official awards
Most Comfortable: Ed O’Neill, HOW I LEARNED GEOGRAPHY
Guy’s kicked back. Chair looks actually comfy, so I don’t blame him. These read alouds provide a window into the reader’s soul, and this is a guy who clearly isn’t overthinking the whole endeavor.
Best Props: Chris O’Dowd, ARNIE THE DOUGHNUT
Not even close. A pile of doughnuts to accompany a story about doughnuts – this is unbeatable. Bonus points for the doughnuts actually being edible – as O’Dowd shows at the end of the story.
Most Animated: Allison Janney, CARLA’S SANDWICH
The hope when you have actors read picture books is that they’ll be able to use their dramatic skills to make the reading great. No one brings the dramatic skills like Janney, who should legitimately win a best actress Oscar for this performance.
Best Voice: James Earl Jones, TO BE A DRUM
JEJ is sort of known for the pipes, and he brings all the baritone you could ever need in this reading.
Most Unexpected Paring, But Let’s Go With It: Ernest Borgnine, THE RAINBOW FISH
Can’t say the actor was an obvious choice to read Marcus Pfister’s much loved (and maligned) book, but the guy has a great voice and it all works out well.
Actor-Book Love Award: Sean Astin, A BAD CASE OF STRIPES
Does any actor love a book as much as Samwise loves this David Shannon classic? Answer: no.
About Travis Jonker
Frodo? Your Nerd license is revoked!
Ha! Samwise! I meant Samwise!