• 5 Star Reads
  • Audiobooks
  • Books on Screen
  • Children’s Books
  • Christian
  • Fiction
  • Giveaways

5 Minutes For Books

  • Home
  • About
    • Who Are We? Reviewer Bios
    • 5 Star Reads
    • Disclosure
    • Privacy Policy
    • About Us
  • Join In
    • 5 Minutes for Books Bookclub
    • Children’s Classics
    • Kids’ Picks
    • What’s on Your Nightstand
  • Link To Us
  • Contact
    • Advertise

Books on Screen: The Electric Company

January 15, 2009 by Jennifer

Hey, you guuuuyss!! The Electric Company is back!

I don’t remember much about watching the Electric Company when I was growing up, but I do remember that it was much hipper and with an older focus as compared to Sesame Street, and this new version is no different. The opening song is peppy and rhyming raps are used frequently in the place of more sedate juvenile nursery rhymes. This is a talented cast — the singing and dancing is second-to-none.

In the first episode, Keith realizes that he has “the wordball power,” which means he can think of a letter or a word, and then he gets the “wordball” that he throw up against something and it materializes. So he takes the pledge to join the electric company to find out what his special skill might be — to add to those that his friends already have: hearing words, seeing words, and rearranging them to make new words.

We also meet the Pranksters (villains), when Christine pops in to steal Keith’s power to create pictures that he visualizes.

This episode “Skills” focuses on

  • introducing the characters
  • the letter “s” and the blend “st”
  • the silent e’s affect on vowels

I think that this show will interest pre-readers and early readers from ages 4 or 5 on up. It is targeted to kids 6 to 9. The pictures, presentations and graphics are definitely something that will appeal to kids of all ages. In fact, the research that helped drive the revival of this show revealed that 27% of public school fourth-graders score below basic levels on reading, with those in low-income families being especially at risk. So, that said, I can see how this show will definitely appeal to older students as well, especially when experienced in conjunction with the activities found at the website, pbskidsgo.org/electriccompany.

After we watched it together, my four-year-old son asked “Can we watch it again tomorrow?” and my ten-year-old daughter was pretty interested as well. I asked her if she’d want to watch the show when it came on, and she said, “Well, it’s better than some of Kyle’s shows. I probably wouldn’t pick it myself, but if he was watching it, I’d probably watch it too.”

Check out the site now for a special sneak peek, and check your local PBS listings for the regular schedule, beginning January 23, kicking off with a special two-hour sneak peek marathon this Monday January 19.

Managing Editor Jennifer Donovan also blogs at Snapshot about life with her tween daughter and preschool son.

Filed Under: Books on Screen, Easy Readers, Jennifer, Picture Books

« I’d Be Your Hero/Princess
Mrs. Kimble »

Comments

  1. Heather Johnson says

    January 15, 2009 at 3:07 pm

    I used to LOVE watching the Electric Company! I’m sure kiddo will like the new version – I can’t wait to see it.

  2. Carrie, Reading to Know says

    January 15, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    Oh wow! You know…I never saw an episode on purpose. I think it used to come on after another show I was watching and my mom would always turn The Electric Co. off before I got too far in. I’ve always wondered what it was about!

  3. YGL says

    January 16, 2009 at 11:00 am

    Now if we could just get Square One back… I miss “Mathnet” and “Late Afternoon with David Numberman” (Corniest parodies you’ll ever see but addictive as anything as a child… To this day if I multiply by 9 I get the Nine song stuck in my head – “nine nine nine, fantastic number nine, times any number you can find, it all comes back to nine…” um yeah…I haven’t heard it in 20 years but I can still sing it…then again I’m quite good at remembering songs from Mr. Rogers as well, even the opera ones like “we are elephants” from Josephine the Short Necked Giraffe (Yes I am a fount of useless information, ROTFLOL!)

  4. kara says

    January 16, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    Oh my gosh….Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and Mr. Rodgers were the big 3 in my house growing up!!! We didn’t have cable so these PBS shows were a special part of my day-my Mom wasn’t big on letting us watch the tube!!! I can’t wait to watch an episode-hooray!!!

  5. Svetlana says

    October 19, 2009 at 7:19 pm

    I want to join the electric company. I want to have all powers like you guys have.

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Welcome to 5 Minutes for Books. We are a team blog dedicated to sharing reviews and information about children's lit, fiction, memoir, and more. Read More…

Reviews

5 Minutes for Books

Jennifer Donovan
Managing Editor

MEET OUR TEAM



Connect With Us


Pinterest

Community

Cybils Logo Draft 3

Disclosure:

Find out about our relationships with publishers and affiliate networks in our full disclosure statement.

Recent Posts

  • After Pearl
  • Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)
  • I Can’t Get No Satisfaction
  • You are Fatally Invited
  • Murder on the Steel Pier–SHOWCASE

Categories

Privacy Policy    |     Disclosure Policy
Terms & Conditions
© 5 Minutes for Mom

Let’s Socialize

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Pinterest is Our FAVORITE!

Find and Follow Us at
pinterest.com/5min4books

Copyright © 2025 · Tasteful theme by Restored 316