In this rhyming spaceship adventure, a boy and his dog go where no one has gone before.
Astronauts, galaxies, black holes and rockets—you name it, Angus has read about it. So when his play rocket ship is mysteriously powered for real space travel, he and his dog Max chart a course for the smallest planet of all. The app begins with a well-planned home page with detailed navigational instructions, read-to-me and read-the-book options. A settings panel appears on every page, and hint boxes help readers progress through the story when action is required. The book also works as a teaching tool, with fascinating pop-up factoids about the planets: the size of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, the fact that Neptune has 13 moons, how often Pluto orbits the sun, the names of its moons and when it was demoted. But there are quite a few craters in this interplanetary adventure, including navigational and sound-effect hiccups. But the most anti-gravitational glitch in this space story is the stilted, forced verse. With such howlers as “canine sidekick” / “glass would be plenty thick” and “unclipped the restraint” / “floated around like a saint,” the story stalls when it should zoom.
There's too much space debris here for a smooth ride. (iPad storybook app. 4-6)
