An import with higher priority placed on visuals and interactive tweaks than narrative or thematic clarity.
Like the Mumuin.com Fox and Crane (2014), an off-kilter version of the Aesopian fable—brightened up by shiny cartoon scenes positively a-twitch with touch-activated flowers, bugs and other details.
The fox (“sniggering”) decides to play a trick on her “friend” the stork by serving porridge on a flat plate. The stork makes polite excuses and in turn offers lunch at his place. Thinking that she’s been forgiven her “little trick” (“A real gentleman!”), she is flummoxed by hash served in a narrow-necked vase and retreats, “confused and outsmarted,” from his snide invitation to chow down. Her rueful if obscure “I might have known!” serves in place of an explicit moral. The entire tale is told on just five screens, each of which features an outdoorsy scene that slides back and forth with tilts of the tablet and features a tap-happy array of bobbing birds, leaping fish, flowers ready to pop open and figures that gesture or utter sighs. The overlaid text, printed in small type with occasional typos, can be whisked out of sight with an icon tap. Children can choose to listen to the audio narration from speakers or through headphones (the latter option doing double duty as “silent” mode) and to dispense with the monotonous background music.
An import with higher priority placed on visuals and interactive tweaks than narrative or thematic clarity. (iPad storybook app. 5-7)Pub Date: June 23, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: TerryLab
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Another quirky take on the series theme that it’s cool to be kind.
The cool beans again step up to do a timorous fellow legume a fava…this time at the pool.
Will a rash decision to tackle the multistory super-slide lead to another embarrassing watery fail for our shy protagonist? Nope, for up the stairs right behind comes a trio of cool beans, each a different type and color, all clad in nothing but dark shades. They make an offer: “It’s not as scary if you go with friends!” As the knobby nerd explains once the thrilling ride down is done, “They all realized that I just needed some encouragement and support.” Just to make sure that both cool and uncool readers get the message, the narrator lets us know that “there are plenty of kind folks who have my back. They’re always there when I need them.” The beany bonhomie doesn’t end at the bottom of the slide, with all gliding down to the shallow end of the pool (“3 INCHES. NO DIVING”) for a splashy finale. This latest early reader starring characters from John and Oswald’s immensely popular Food Group series will be a hit with fans. Fun accessories, such as a bean who rocks pink cat-eye frames, add some pizzazz to the chromatically and somatotypically varied cast.
Another quirky take on the series theme that it’s cool to be kind. (Easy reader. 5-7)Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780063329560
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
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