FARELLAS, THE LEGEND OF A GIANT

Name: FARELLAS, THE LEGEND OF A GIANT
Author: Núria Corbera i Padró

by Núria Corbera i Padró & illustrated by Núria Corbera i Padró & developed by Jordi Martín i Forns ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 6, 2013

Language issues aside, more a story outline than a finished work, but there’s something sweetly appealing about Farellas for...

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Though easy on the eyes and fun to tap, this simple tale of a good giant who fights a bad one could really use both a better translation and a more developed storyline.

At the urging of a passing lad, a kindly Catalan giant known as Strong Farell, or Farellas, sets out to free Barcelona from a mean giant. Rather than leave peaceably, said meanie demands that Farellas “fight against me to kick me out of the city.” After a quick feast “to recover strenght [sic],” Farellas tosses his adversary up into the sky so that he “flew over the roofs of Barcelona and got lost far away the sea horizon,” then strolls home past cheering crowds. Taps on the brightly colored, multitextured cartoon collages trigger mild, pleasing interactions. Night changes to day, roosters crow, small animals pop out of hiding, and the smiling, flannel-shirted giant traverses woods and city streets. These and other animations play out as rather loud strains of background music sound and, at times, clash. The unnarrated text can be read in English, Spanish or the original print version’s Catalan.

Language issues aside, more a story outline than a finished work, but there’s something sweetly appealing about Farellas for all that. (jigsaw puzzle) (iPad storybook app. 6-8)

Pub Date: April 6, 2013

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Jordi Martín i Forns

Review Posted Online: May 14, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2013

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BUTT OR FACE?

From the Butt or Face? series

by Kari Lavelle ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A gleeful game for budding naturalists.

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Artfully cropped animal portraits challenge viewers to guess which end they’re seeing.

In what will be a crowd-pleasing and inevitably raucous guessing game, a series of close-up stock photos invite children to call out one of the titular alternatives. A page turn reveals answers and basic facts about each creature backed up by more of the latter in a closing map and table. Some of the posers, like the tail of an okapi or the nose on a proboscis monkey, are easy enough to guess—but the moist nose on a star-nosed mole really does look like an anus, and the false “eyes” on the hind ends of a Cuyaba dwarf frog and a Promethea moth caterpillar will fool many. Better yet, Lavelle saves a kicker for the finale with a glimpse of a small parasitical pearlfish peeking out of a sea cucumber’s rear so that the answer is actually face and butt. “Animal identification can be tricky!” she concludes, noting that many of the features here function as defenses against attack: “In the animal world, sometimes your butt will save your face and your face just might save your butt!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gleeful game for budding naturalists. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9781728271170

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks eXplore

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
BUTT OR FACE? VOLUME 4
by Kari Lavelle

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ODE TO GRAPEFRUIT
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Bryan Collier

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WE MOVE THE WORLD
by Kari Lavelle ; illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

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HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE STARRY NIGHT

From the Henry and Mudge series

by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Sucie Stevenson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

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Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)