by Hilke Sievers ; illustrated by Hilke Sievers ; developed by Hilke Sievers ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2014
For young readers who can't get enough of dragon stories, this is one they're likely to remember.
An unusual creature finds a rewarding career in theater in this multiple-scenario story.
A small dragon (it looks like a combination of a lizard and a pot-bellied rat) lives in a tree. But when the dragon is disturbed, it flies into the stratosphere, then comes back down to Earth, landing in one of three places chosen by readers: Hollywood, Loch Ness, or Yangshuo, China. Regardless of where it lands, the dragon becomes the star of a play, bringing the story back to the beginning, when a storyteller narrating the app introduces the reptilian stage star. It's perhaps one or two degrees too much narrative jumping around for what's at heart the simple story of a solitary specimen finding love and acceptance. The app's hand-drawn art seems intentionally crude, but it is animated in sophisticated ways, as on pages where the reader can guide the lighting of a stage light. The text, translated from Spanish, is clean if unremarkable. The fact that the dragon lacks a name becomes problematic when a second dragon is introduced to the story. Somehow, though, the animation, simple illustrative style, and unobtrusive narration and music pull together to create something distinctive and winning: It has a style that is refreshingly scruffy compared to other slick offerings in the App Store.
For young readers who can't get enough of dragon stories, this is one they're likely to remember. (iPad storybook app. 4-9)Pub Date: July 14, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Hilke Sievers
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2014
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by Adam Wallace ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2017
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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by Loren Long & illustrated by Loren Long ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2009
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
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by Loren Long ; illustrated by Loren Long
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