A good-humored if bland adventure made slightly spicy through interactive add-ons—if readers can find them.
Soothing music accompanies Lilup, the friendly, white Great Pyrenees dog as he effortlessly floats above the Earth and under the sea, stopping on several continents to befriend local animals.
Lilup plays with a variety of critters, including penguins, lions, polar bears and even a butterfly before his shaggy paws lead him back home. Realistic illustrations fill the entire screen, providing a variety of angles, including several birds-eye views that add a pleasing sense of motion to Lilup’s adventure. At first this appears to be a simple, minimally interactive text, but selecting “I” in the upper-left screen (after choosing the "menu" at the top) reveals a link to a “hints” section. For readers unused to consulting directions to inform their reading, this section can be easily overlooked. Reviewing hints, which requires access to the Internet, reveals the text’s interactivity, which is not intuitive. For example, the hints demonstrate that by tilting the iPad readers can speed up Lilup’s pace or view more of the sky. The "My Library" feature enables users to record themselves reading the story. Users may save several versions of their recordings, allowing for personalization and to accommodate varied reading speed and special messages. There is a straight-up narrated option, which is well paced and synchronizes with red highlighting of the words.
A good-humored if bland adventure made slightly spicy through interactive add-ons—if readers can find them. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: VivaBook
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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