F:SH

Name: F:SH
Author: Brandwidth

developed by Brandwidth ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 6, 2011

The story has enough going for it, from its cartoony art to its solid narration, but the show-stopping crashes make for a...

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There are some clever visuals and interesting ideas in this sea-based app, but at least in its current form, it'll be too buggy for many iPad users to enjoy.

In a hazy, friendly-looking world below the sea, a small fish named Plip wants to go on an adventure exploring on a sunny day. Rounding up his pals, a jellyfish named Jelly and a hermit crab named Shella, Plip discovers a hole in the sea floor that leads to a darker, wilder area. While each page turn involves swiping from right to left, the section with the ocean hole begins to move up and down, giving the app a diverting sense of direction. Plip finds he can light up by sneezing and leads his friend back up to safety. The app is nicely illustrated, with lovely transparency effects and a cool color palette. But it's unclear what an option at the beginning to add a reader's name and phone has to do with the story: In the end, that photo appears in a window of a big submarine that shows up as if out of obligation to that feature. But it's likely readers may not get that far. On a first-generation iPad, the app crashed constantly in multiple places, making it difficult to get through the story even once without starting over. At least a useful "App Map" allows readers to pick up where they left off.

The story has enough going for it, from its cartoony art to its solid narration, but the show-stopping crashes make for a frustrating time. (iPad storybook app. 3-6)

Pub Date: July 6, 2011

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Brandwidth

Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?
edited by Eric Carle

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WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

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MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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LOVE FROM THE CRAYONS

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 24, 2019

As ephemeral as a valentine.

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Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.

Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.

As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)