bookshelf

EVERLOVE

Name: EVERLOVE
Author: Silicon Sisters

ROSE

developed by Silicon Sisters ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 21, 2013

Occasional passionate snogging aside, all the physical action’s offstage in this touchy-feely outing.

bookshelf

In this elaborately plotted-out interactive adventure, “past life regression therapy” sends a modern teenager back several centuries to collect hunky guys while getting in touch with her inner self.

With her therapist’s guidance, Rose breathes deeply and wakes in medieval Heart’s Home to meet various characters—notably four eminently eligible men—and to gather clues to the mysterious death of her physician father. In the static illustrations, figures digitally rendered from photographed models pose in photorealistic settings, changing expression or position slightly. Above, lines of printed dialogue (“What is it you want?” “Just a kiss would do. Failing that…the dagger on your hip.”) scroll into and out of view one at a time, and bland music tootles monotonously in the background. At intervals, readers are presented with a choice of some sort: A box opens with two or more possible ways for Rose to respond to a conversational sally, or a puzzle must be finished to move on. Periodically, Rose returns to the present for some therapeutic analysis, or a map/playing board appears to chart her progress along a twisted, branching path. The board also includes tables that tally accumulated strength points (based on the aforementioned responses) for Rose’s four budding romances as well as her levels of Kindness, Wisdom and three other characteristics. Though multiple games can be saved and the board, when open, allows quick access to past encounters, there is no way to skip ahead or to cut scenes short.

Occasional passionate snogging aside, all the physical action’s offstage in this touchy-feely outing. (iPad game app. 14 & up)

Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2013

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Silicon Sisters

Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013

bookshelf

RED-EYED TREE FROG

by Joy Cowley ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

bookshelf

Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-590-87175-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1999

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TINY WOMAN'S COAT
by Joy Cowley ; illustrated by Giselle Clarkson

- BOOK REVIEW
SONG OF THE RIVER
by Joy Cowley ; illustrated by Kimberly Andrews

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WARLI PEOPLE
by Hye-Eun Shin ; illustrated by Su-Bi Jeong ; edited by Joy Cowley

bookshelf

TOUCHING SPIRIT BEAR

by Ben Mikaelsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 2001

bookshelf

Troubled teen meets totemic catalyst in Mikaelsen’s (Petey, 1998, etc.) earnest tribute to Native American spirituality. Fifteen-year-old Cole is cocky, embittered, and eaten up by anger at his abusive parents. After repeated skirmishes with the law, he finally faces jail time when he viciously beats a classmate. Cole’s parole officer offers him an alternative—Circle Justice, an innovative justice program based on Native traditions. Sentenced to a year on an uninhabited Arctic island under the supervision of Edwin, a Tlingit elder, Cole provokes an attack from a titanic white “Spirit Bear” while attempting escape. Although permanently crippled by the near-death experience, he is somehow allowed yet another stint on the island. Through Edwin’s patient tutoring, Cole gradually masters his rage, but realizes that he needs to help his former victims to complete his own healing. Mikaelsen paints a realistic portrait of an unlikable young punk, and if Cole’s turnaround is dramatic, it is also convincingly painful and slow. Alas, the rest of the characters are cardboard caricatures: the brutal, drunk father, the compassionate, perceptive parole officer, and the stoic and cryptic Native mentor. Much of the plot stretches credulity, from Cole’s survival to his repeated chances at rehabilitation to his victim being permitted to share his exile. Nonetheless, teens drawn by the brutality of Cole’s adventures, and piqued by Mikaelsen’s rather muscular mysticism, might absorb valuable lessons on anger management and personal responsibility. As melodramatic and well-meaning as the teens it targets. (Fiction. YA)