Potter's story of an abusive relationship between Miss Moppet the cat and Mouse is given short shrift in this shoddy,...
There's homage and then there's pure imitation, and in this adaptation of Beatrix Potter's cat-and-mouse tale, the developer has clearly studied the template created by Loud Crow Interactive and created a cheap, off-putting knockoff.
Loud Crow developed superb apps out of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. In this app, everything, from the title screen to its drop-down-bookmark menu to the way Potter's illustrations wiggle and squeak when touched, is similar, but the execution falls short. With generic music, annoying sound effects ("Boing!" goes one, making it sound like it was recycled from a Saturday-morning TV show) and narration that feels out of rhythm, the original text and pictures survive intact, but just barely. The title screen, showing a copy of the original book, a fountain pen, ink and what appears to be a blank yellow Post-It Note (seriously!?) tells you all you need to know. Worst, the narration must be activated by touching the first letter of the first word of each page, but there's no hint or instruction that this is the case.
Potter's story of an abusive relationship between Miss Moppet the cat and Mouse is given short shrift in this shoddy, derivative app. Readers will be left feeling teased and unsatisfied, even if they're unaware far better Potter apps exist. (iPad storybook app. 3-8)Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Squeaky Oak
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
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