Another tip-top turn from the creator of Treetop Ted (2011).
The newest of the alliterative Frubeez apps introduces hat-happy Hannah, a googly-eyed lass with a taste for rib-tickling toppers.
Using a mix of photos and flat, silkscreen-style graphics, Callander creates a two-toned orange child with oversized eyes and a giant button in the middle of her tummy. Hannah models 18 types of headgear that range widely. A tartan tam has its own pair of eyes, and a sugary cupcake disappears bite by bite. There are bursts of flowers, twinkling halogen lights and a boom box broadcasting a funky beat, as well as a lollipop-chomping monster and a melting blob of goo. In a clever literacy-building feature, the lively audio narration doesn’t run automatically but is activated only by tapping the big, bright rhymed text on each screen. Tapping Hannah herself brings up a snatch of music or other sound effect, a bit of animation and a comment or giggle. Though the verse seems a bit forced at times—“She had hundreds of hats all stylishly fab. / She even had a hat for her pet hermit crab!”—its vigorous rhythms are a match for the art’s visual energy and the unusually quick, engagingly varied interactive effects. Hannah ultimately solves her storage issue by opening a boutique, and she joins her cheering stock to utter a “See you again soon” that’s likely to be as much an accurate prediction as a polite wish.
Another tip-top turn from the creator of Treetop Ted (2011). (iPad storybook app. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Frubeez
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 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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