A relatively small number of animations and interactive effects embellish an engaging, sometimes laugh-out-loud detective story. This third case for young sleuth Violet, aka “Phantom Girl,” and her trusty canine sidekick Phantom Dog sends the pair into the snow to check out new neighbor Maxwell—“MaxMan”—and then help him find a lost bottle-cap badge. As in previous episodes, each scene offers readers the option to read the text silently or, with a tap of a corner button, to hear it read by the author (who sounds about Violet’s age). For children fond of skipping around or going back to favorite pages, there is an index of thumbnail images that can be called up at any time by tapping another corner button. With further taps, items in the lively cartoon scenes that are outlined in yellow expand into clues or closer views. The background music is unobtrusive, but it can also be turned off at the beginning. As in previous outings, the tale gives readers three chances to make choices that create short loops in the plot. Here, though, readers can pause for a fast-paced video-game–style snowball fight and also for a comical game of touch-the-bird. These diversions, along with the occasional blink, wave or moveable toy, are so well placed that there seem to be more than there actually are. All enhance the overall air of high good humor. (iPad storybook app. 6-8)
Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: My Black Dog Books
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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