by Nathalie Tousnakhoff & illustrated by Matt Roussell & developed by Square Igloo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 2013
A simple story about planet-crossed friendship but one in which the eye-catching artwork both accounts for and counteracts...
Two little girls from planets which are different in only one big way become friends in this visually striking app.
Green Zoe is the middle child in a green family that lives on a green planet. Their green lives are shaken up when a big, red spaceship lands, depositing a red family from a red planet. The visitors send their daughter, Maho, to school with Zoe, and the two become friends, despite some color-coded bullying from another student. The friendship lasts, but Maho’s parents become homesick and decide to go back home. It’s a sad goodbye, but maybe Zoe can visit the red planet someday. The lesson of tolerance in the app is simple. The visuals are lovely, with green-hued cars, pets and people made of what appears to be carefully crafted papier-mâché. The spots of red, like Maho and her spaceship, pop amid all the green. Unfortunately, the red Takino family’s outsider status is emphasized by Asian stereotyping, including slanted lines for eyes and World War II propaganda–worthy buckteeth on the father. The text is unremarkable, simply moving the story along and prompting readers to perform simple on-screen actions. Five games from the story are available to play on their own from the app’s main menu.
A simple story about planet-crossed friendship but one in which the eye-catching artwork both accounts for and counteracts much of the colorful charm. (iPad storybook app. 3-8)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Square Igloo
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
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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 Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton
by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton
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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 Lisa Wheeler ; illustrated by Loren Long
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