A sticky-sweet rendition, with none of the original’s pungency or strangeness.
A rhymed version of the classic, compressed into just 12 screens thickly strewn with touch-activated trifles.
“A pretty girl named Alice sat by the stream one day, / She was clever and nice, but had no friend with whom to play.” Viewers can read this literary lowlight to themselves, listen to a saccharine audio or even record their own version. The best option of all removes the text from view entirely with the tap of a button. This leaves a dozen bland, brightly colored cartoon views of an expressionless, doll-like blonde lass in a blue pinafore shrinking, growing (“Mm! A cookie!”) and encountering various odd creatures. These include the usual suspects: a Mad Hatter with an array of headgear options, a sniggering purple Cheshire cat and a Queen who explodes into cards at Alice’s accusatory “Hey, you!” In each scene, taps release sprays of hearts or sparkles, activate exclamations or other sound effects and set off slow animations. Seven screens also include several drag-and-drop jigsaw pieces. The app is available for a nominal charge or in a free version with large pop-up ads.
A sticky-sweet rendition, with none of the original’s pungency or strangeness. (iPad storybook app. 5-7)Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: TabTale
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
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