bookshelf

THREE LITTLE PIGS 3D

Name: THREE LITTLE PIGS 3D
Author: Doug Franck Wolf

by Doug Franck Wolf & developed by Rick Bronson ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

bookshelf

Labor-intensive to a fault, this 3-D take on the traditional story of swine siblings, a hungry wolf and a mini real-estate bubble looks great. But it’s more work to read than blowing someone’s brick house down. The pigs and strangely tiny wolf of the story are rendered as blocky, LEGO-like figures. To see the animation on each screen, readers must slide an icon shaped like a pig’s head along the bottom of the screen or swipe along the image itself. There’s no text on screen: It’s hidden in a text bubble, accessible with an icon press. It’s no loss if readers don’t find it, as the limping verse is painful in the extreme. Turning the pages or hearing narration requires the pressing of additional buttons. Readers would need to touch the iPad screen about 88 times to see and hear all 22 pages. There’s no option for the app to turn pages or narrate the whole story automatically. The 3-D effect (glasses not included) works nicely most of the time, but it’s one more thing to adjust in an app that feels like a bunch of interactivity and very little story. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011

bookshelf

HOW TO CATCH A WITCH

by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2022

Not enough tricks to make this a treat.

bookshelf

Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.

Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland

Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO CATCH BIGFOOT
by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO CATCH AN INVISIBLE BAD GUY
by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton

- BOOK REVIEW
HOW TO CATCH A GROUNDHOG
by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Emma Gillette & Andy Elkerton

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

bookshelf

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

bookshelf

Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.

If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)