Udderly engaging, if an innings short of a finished match.
Melodramatic Aussie narration and broadly comical art milk this tale of cricket’s origins Down Under for all it’s worth.
It all begins when a Jersey cow named Jenny Bramble Rose, getting a cricket up her nose, sneezes out a ball of cud that one pasture mate whacks with a willow stick and another catches in her hat after a heroic gallop (“HOWZAT?”). This proves so exciting that the other cattle all want to play. They get together to set rules, take team pictures, appoint a goat as referee and play for five days to a (voluntary) draw before a riveted crowd of farm animals. Most of the hilariously dodgy-looking creatures in Redlich’s rustic cartoons squawk, moo, hop, bleat, grimace, cheer, lay an egg or poop when tapped. Viewers can drag the bat and ball, move scenes along at will (using either arrows or the thumbnail index or just by tapping screens) and have any words in the rhymed text re-pronounced with a touch. There is an autoplay option but no silent mode. Along with that sticky wicket, children won’t come away with more than a vague notion of how cricket is actually played. Still, the closing stanza’s “From that day on the game became a ritual sort of test, / Of having fun but playing fair and giving it your best” is applicable to any sport.
Udderly engaging, if an innings short of a finished match. (iPad storybook app. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 17, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Colour Me Interactive
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off.
This rocket hopes to take its readers on a birthday blast—but there may or may not be enough fuel.
Once a year, a one-seat rocket shoots out from Earth. Why? To reveal a special congratulatory banner for a once-a-year event. The second-person narration puts readers in the pilot’s seat and, through a (mostly) ballad-stanza rhyme scheme (abcb), sends them on a journey toward the sun, past meteors, and into the Kuiper belt. The final pages include additional information on how birthdays are measured against the Earth’s rotations around the sun. Collingridge aims for the stars with this title, and he mostly succeeds. The rhyme scheme flows smoothly, which will make listeners happy, but the illustrations (possibly a combination of paint with digital enhancements) may leave the viewers feeling a little cold. The pilot is seen only with a 1960s-style fishbowl helmet that completely obscures the face, gender, and race by reflecting the interior of the rocket ship. This may allow readers/listeners to picture themselves in the role, but it also may divest them of any emotional connection to the story. The last pages—the backside of a triple-gatefold spread—label the planets and include Pluto. While Pluto is correctly labeled as a dwarf planet, it’s an unusual choice to include it but not the other dwarfs: Ceres, Eris, etc. The illustration also neglects to include the asteroid belt or any of the solar system’s moons.
A fair choice, but it may need some support to really blast off. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-18949-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: David Fickling/Phoenix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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