A serene and enjoyable way to hone fine-motor and observation skills.
A simple yet solid seek-and-find for toddlers and preschoolers.
The point of this no-frills app is to find the animals that live in Mossy Forest. There are 10 critters in all, each hidden somewhere in the landscape on the home screen. Some creatures are easier to locate than others. The fox, the mouse and the owl, for example, are peeking out from their respective hiding places. The butterfly, however, is camouflaged as a flower, while the bunny could pass for a stone. Once an animal is located and tapped, readers are zoomed in to a screen that fully reveals it, and if narration is turned on, kids are heartily commended by the plummy-voiced British narrator for finding it. Afterward, touch the “back” button to return to the landscape so the rest of the animals can be discovered. Once they’ve all been found, readers are encouraged to uncover them again. And again. The interactions are slight and modest: Owls jump, the frog eats a fly, and the hedgehog rolls up into a ball. There’s another screen that doesn’t seem to serve much purpose other than counting to 10 by tapping the different animals. Narration is up to BBC standards, and the musical accompaniment is splendid (both are optional). The only thing that drags this app down is the time between touch and response; it’s moderately sluggish.
A serene and enjoyable way to hone fine-motor and observation skills. (Requires iPad 2 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 1-5)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: The Flavour
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A joyful celebration.
Families in a variety of configurations play, dance, and celebrate together.
The rhymed verse, based on a song from the Noodle Loaf children’s podcast, declares that “Families belong / Together like a puzzle / Different-sized people / One big snuggle.” The accompanying image shows an interracial couple of caregivers (one with brown skin and one pale) cuddling with a pajama-clad toddler with light brown skin and surrounded by two cats and a dog. Subsequent pages show a wide array of families with members of many different racial presentations engaging in bike and bus rides, indoor dance parties, and more. In some, readers see only one caregiver: a father or a grandparent, perhaps. One same-sex couple with two children in tow are expecting another child. Smart’s illustrations are playful and expressive, curating the most joyful moments of family life. The verse, punctuated by the word together, frequently set in oversized font, is gently inclusive at its best but may trip up readers with its irregular rhythms. The song that inspired the book can be found on the Noodle Loaf website.
A joyful celebration. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-22276-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Rise x Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2020
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