ENTERTAINMENT : Video Views : Kinder, gentler fare is what awaits parents and children at a new Ventura store, with most of the tapes based on books.

Move over G.I. Joe, Batman and those brain-bashing warriors of the sewer, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Make way for Beethoven (the composer), “Ramona” (your average kid) and Rudyard Kipling’s “Elephant’s Child” (narrated by Jack Nicholson).

This kinder, gentler fare is what awaits parents and kids at Kideos, a new video store exclusively for children that just opened in Ventura. In fact, there is little at Kideos that you would find at other video stores. Most of the tapes are based on books, and that’s exactly what the owner, Jody Fickes, intended.

Fickes, a former librarian, owns Adventures for Kids, a Ventura bookstore just for children. She opened Kideos next door earlier this month.

Why does a book lover, who has little use for television and trashy children’s books, open a video store?

“There are a lot of good (videos) out there,” Fickes said. But parents are frustrated, she said, because quality videos aren’t that easy to find. Children’s book publishers are just beginning to realize there is a market for quality videos.

“The market is untapped,” she said.

A video store catering exclusively to children’s entertainment apparently is a novel idea. Fickes knows of a similar store in Toronto but has heard of none in the United States so far. “I’ve been asking suppliers,” she said.

She isn’t timid about trying something new. When she opened her children’s bookstore 13 years ago, such an idea had virtually been untried. Five years later children’s bookstores were sprouting all over.

“If you believe in something, you should do it,” she said.

Earlier this year, Fickes picked up the Charles S. Haslam Award for Excellence in Bookselling at the American Booksellers Assn. convention in Anaheim. It was the first time a children’s bookstore owner had received the award, which recognizes innovative business practices, social responsibility and involvement in the community.

Kideos isn’t nearly the size of Adventures for Kids, nor does it yet have a hefty selection of videos for rent and sale. The store has about 300 now, and Fickes hopes to build the number of rentals to 500 by the end of the year.

But the selection is so rich that the numbers don’t seem to matter. You’ll find video versions of books by Dr. Seuss and Richard Scary, as well as the “Berenstain Bear” series, Beverly Cleary’s “Ramona” series and “The Baby Sitters Club” series.

Books featured by Reading Rainbow and Children’s Circle also are on the video shelves, and the Sesame Street tapes are in abundance.

You’ll find classics such as “The Secret Garden” and “Charlotte’s Web.” There are tapes of children’s songs in French, Spanish and German, along with language instruction tapes, and tapes that teach cooking, science and nature.

There is even a video, “Once Upon a Potty,” (based on the book) for children about to escape diapers. And there are tapes about sex education and puberty.

Fickes has some Walt Disney offerings: “Fantasia,” “Bambi,” “Mary Poppins” and “101 Dalmatians.” “Captain Planet and the Planeteers” is on the shelves, along with some National Geographic videos, such as “The Incredible Human Machine.”

The one tape that Fickes raves about is “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” about a boy’s relationship with the composer. The video includes the composer’s music.

Fickes looks at videos as another way to turn children onto books, something she has done much of her life. When her two sons were young they were permitted to watch television only after they had amassed an equal number of minutes reading books.

“They were never allowed to watch television during the week,” she said.

In selecting videos she has avoided violence and all the things she abhors about commercial television.

“Why model behavior we really don’t want to model,” she said. “Videos give parents a chance to control their child’s viewing time.”

Certainly, video stores have children’s sections, some of them large. And most carry some quality children’s videos. But some of the best videos, those recommended by groups such as the American Library Assn. and Parent’s Choice Foundation, don’t find their way to local video stores.

Many are put out by independent producers who lack the money to market them widely. So says Paula Miller, executive director of the Coalition for Quality Children’s Videos, a new nonprofit organization that heightens awareness of quality tapes and makes them more available. Based in Santa Monica, the coalition has put together a collection of 15 hard-to-find videos for kids.

Miller said parents who care about their children’s viewing habits are frustrated by video selections at local stores and have to search for places such as Fickes’s Kideos or look through video catalogues.

“Their voices are not being heard unless they say something to the retailer,” Miller said. Retailers tend to go with names the general public recognizes, such as Disney. Also, stores have only so much shelf space.

Another resource for quality children’s videos is the library. The Thousand Oaks Library, the new Oxnard Library and the Port Hueneme-Prueter Library all check them out for varying fees.

If you still have questions about what children’s videos are worth watching, there are some books available that offer guidance. One is “Family Video Guide” by Terry and Katherine Cathpole, available for $12.95 through Williamson Publishing.

* FYI

Kideos, 3455 Telegraph Road, is open Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Videos rent for $1.99 a day. For information, call 650-5900.

For more information on the Coalition for Quality Children’s Videos, call 310-450-1628.