Reading Rainbow

- Season 10

(1992)

LeVar discusses the weather: how it is traced, tracked, and covered in the media. Kids our shown how they can make a "soda bottle tornado", how a barometer works, and read the book, "Come a Tide". All this is prelude to the dramatic footage of Hurricane Hugo as it wrought havoc on South Carolina in 1989.

"The Piggy in the Puddle" features a look at the art of claymation and the joys of mud. Claymation artists Becky and Cody introduce host LeVar Burton to the art of claymation and create a claymation interpretation of Charlotte Pomerantz's THE PIGGY IN THE PUDDLE. This program also features kids creating their own clay figures and a trip to a mud racing show. Kids review THIS HOUSE IS MADE OF MUD, THE HIPPOPOTAMUS SONG, and OINK.

LeVar journeys to the shores of Sanibel Island, off the Gulf Coast of Florida, to witness the tides, feel the sand, and examine some plant life.

What is it like to be adopted? In what may be the high point of the 10th season, this show has a lengthy sequence about adopted children in families. Andrew Lei narrates Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies, a story about a boy who was adopted by a pair of parents who wanted a child very much.

LeVar cruises the musical realms of New York in a program featuring the Boys Choir of Harlem. James Avery narrates the tale of Berlioz the Bear, a story about a bass-playing bear who gets in a jam. His animal friends who play music help him out, but all fail until a bee from inside Berlioz's bass saves the day.

LeVar visits a theater to discuss acting and how pretending to be someone else sometimes helps people express themselves in different ways. He also visits with his friend, Whoopi Goldberg, who was launching her own talk show, and discussed how her unique look has sometimes helped, and hindered her career as an actress/comedienne.

As LeVar discusses his favorite parts of a newspaper and interviews other people for different viewpoints, other functions of a newspaper staff are explored. Cartoonist Ray Billingsley, who draws Curtis, shows how he illustrates a comic, and a high school newspaper staff is profiled making a weekly publication.

LeVar pays a visit to a family friend, who is Jewish, to learn how to prepare special foods served during a Seder dinner, like Challah bread and potato latkes. Reizyl Bozyk and Rick English read the featured story of an elderly Jewish lady and how she befriends her neighbor's young son after she is widowed and he gives her a pet cat to keep her company.

LeVar explores the rain forest and animals in their habitats by visiting a park that recreates the rain forest environment artificially to make the animals comfortable. This episode also includes a film of scientists who study the region's animals from above by climbing inside a tree's canopy. Lynne Thigpen reads The Salamander Room, about a little boy who finds a small newt while on a nature walk, and all the rationalizing he does to convince his mother to let him keep the salamander as a pet by turning his bedroom into a model rain forest.

This episode takes a look-in at deaf culture. LeVar discusses forms of communication that doesn't involve words, like hand signals, mime, and gestures, like in charades. He also asks a friend who is a deaf actress to teach him some sentences in sign language. Lea Salonga reads the featured story of a shy young girl in Cambodia, whose parents realized her lack of communication was due to being a deaf mute, but in noticing her natural talent for dancing, approached the king to request that their daughter be allowed to join the royal dancing troupe.