Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf

There is no better way to introduce children to classical music than with Prokofiev's musical fairy tale of the little boy (played by all the strings of the orchestra) who, with the help of a bird (played by the flute), outsmarted the big, bad wolf (played by the French horns).

A new retelling by Janet Schulman follows the basic story, but with a kinder ending for both the big bad wolf and the argumentative duck. Peter Malone's paintings have the luminous quality of old Russian masters.