Diverse folktales, poems, and songs with moral lessons.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 4+?
Any Positive Content?
Violence & Scariness
very little
Some episodes mention violence or dangerous behavior toward others, like people suffering in war or intending to put rat poison in someone's food. Aunti Oni talks about plantation culture and slavery to give context for tales from the American South. Hardship, like a child having cancer and losing her hair, and peril, like rats trying to outwit a cat, are used as context for teaching positive lessons and celebrating joy, not emphasizing sadness, fear, danger or violence.
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"Annie Mae Jumps the Broom '' is about love, courtship, romance, and ritual in the plantation era of the American South. It includes hand-holding and affectionate words, but no sexy behavior.
Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.
Many stories, poems, and songs that Aunti Oni tells from cultures around the world focus on positive traits like perseverance, integrity, self-confidence, and compassion. Younger listeners may need help relating some of the morals learned through Aunti Oni's stories to realistic settings. Most stories teach a moral lesson, like the importance of cooperation over competition, kindness always defeating evil, or hard work paying off.
Positive Role Models
a lot
Story characters show negative traits, like being mean by considering poisoning food for others, or cheating to win. These negative actions result in negative consequences, so listeners learn a positive lesson and characters sometimes change their ways. Other characters possess positive character traits like perseverance, courage, integrity and compassion. Stories have important social-emotional lessons.
Diverse Representations
a lot
Aunti Oni adapts and tells tales from cultures around the world, always crediting their origin cultures, authors, or storytellers. The stories come from diverse cultural traditions including Ghana, Japan, Cuba, Trinidad, and the plantation era of the American South. Some episodes feature works by poets and authors like Nikki Giovanni, and Aunti Oni puts her own spin on some of Aesop's fables. She adds accents to characters' voices and background music to convey cultural differences across episodes, but these might reinforce stereotypes, like an airy old wise Japanese man's voice and use of pentatonic scale music in the Asian folktale.
At each episode's outset, Aunti Oni introduces the song, poem, or tale by teaching what culture it comes from and crediting its source. Most stories teach a moral lesson, like the importance of cooperation over competition, kindness always defeating evil, or hard work paying off. The storyteller sometimes asks listeners questions so they stay engaged and make connections. The podcast does not often define vocabulary or explain how lessons might relate to real life for young children.
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Story Village with Aunti Oni a culturally rich story and folktale podcast, lead by the talented Oni Lasana. Aunti Oni shares stories, poems and songs from all over the world and always the original poets, musicians, storytellers, and traditions, and tells the stories in her own voice with accompanying background music. Sources include Aesop's fables, Native American traditional stories, books about the American South during slavery, poems by Nikki Giovanni, folktales from Asia, and traditional stories from West Africa. To drive home positive messages, like the importance of compassion, integrity, perseverance, and cooperation, Aunti Oni sometimes describes peril and hardship like rats trying to escape a cat, a child with cancer, and the injustice of slavery. Episodes range from three to thirteen minutes, and run continuously with no advertisements, just Aunti Oni promoting her offerings at the beginning. Adults are sure to love listening to these stories along with their kids and will fall in love with Aunti Oni's caring and inclusive nature.
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What’s It About?
STORY VILLAGE WITH AUNTI ONI is culturally diverse storytelling podcast that offers entertaining stories, poems and songs with beautiful moral lessons. Aunti Oni is the talented storyteller and producer Oni Lasana, who adapts, creates, and tells or retells stories from cultures around the world. Most of the stories have strong positive lessons about qualities like kindness, cooperation, generosity, and perseverance. Some characters have negative traits or behaviors like greed or cheating before they learn their lessons. Some stories depict perilous situations, like poisoned food, or historical hardship, like war or slavery. Aunti Oni credits the diverse origins of her stories, whether from contemporary poets like Nikki Giovanni, West African folklore, Japanese traditions, or Native American cultures. She voices all the characters and adds background music. Episodes range in length from three to thirteen minutes.
Oni Lasana and her village tackle it all in this podcast: promoting literacy, celebrating diversity, teaching morals, and most of all bringing joy and magic to kids of all ages through storytelling. Episodes of Story Village with Aunti Oni vary in length from three to thirteen minutes, but stay consistent in their loving celebratory tone. If you're listening with young kids, preview the story first to avoid any depictions of negative behavior, perilous situations, or hardships they might not be ready for. These younger listeners might also need help relating the valuable moral lessons to their own lives.
While hearing stories from people around the world in their own voices might be valuable and avoid some of the pitfalls of reinforcing stereotypes, Aunti Oni is a great performer with a style all her own. She also gives credit to the authors, poets, storytellers, and cultures from which she adapts her own takes, which means you can dig deeper into the source material as a follow-up activity with your classroom or family.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how Story Village with Aunti Oni stands out from other storytelling podcasts. Can you use a map to pinpoint where the story, song, or poem of each episode comes from?
Aunti Oni shares stories, poems and songs from all over the world. After listening to an episode, do some research on the area where that episode's story, poem or song originated from. This is a great project for kids and adults to do together to learn about different cultures and traditions as well as how to do simple research.
If you could tell a story to podcast listeners, what story would you tell? Does your family have traditional stories they've passed on? Can you learn more about your cultural background and what stories, poems and songs may come from your culture(s)?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
suggesting a diversity update.
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
By Lauri C. Anderson
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
