The youngest readers may not fully appreciate the careful construction of the app, but parents will be able to detect the...
Simple but very nicely put together, this bilingual picture-book app teaches names of animals that have the color green in common.
Each page of this app, the first in a planned series of Spanish-and-English interactive books for young children, features a green animal against a brightly colored background. The animals, including a parrot (el loro), turtle (la tortuga) and crocodile (el cocodrilo), each have a brief moment of animation. The crocodile snaps its teeth, a frog swallows a fly and so on. The optional narration that accompanies the large, easy-to-read text is read by a child and is basic and consistent. "La rana es verde. The frog is green," one page reads. The repetitive format makes it easy to concentrate on the words and their translations. It doesn't overstay its welcome, and the last pages feature a green dog that, it turns out, should actually be brown. A final page features all the animals together with their accompanying sound effects and animations. Although it is a simple concept, it is designed consistently, with very easy navigation and flawless execution. Even an included coloring game goes above-and-beyond: All the pages can be drawn upon, and the coloring tools include stamps, polka-dot, striped or plaid paints and different sizes of brushes.
The youngest readers may not fully appreciate the careful construction of the app, but parents will be able to detect the deceptively easy-looking effort shown here. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Panarea Digital
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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