Vampires rarely come amiss, and von Splatter has a high time amusing and spooking users while it lasts
Vampire Vladmir von Splatter introduces young users of this app to some ghoulish features in his castle.
The vampire’s castle is in the “pleasantly dark and stormy realm of Darkonia,” and it is aptly rendered here with plenty of inky shadows and murky corners, but also with its share of bold color and terrific sound effects—Vincent Price would be proud. The app is very friendly to use, responding quickly to the touch, which is typically accompanied by a scream or a howl. There are seven separate screens involved, each with multiple features and often involving a game as users poke about in the castle. On one screen, coffins are laid out on a stage and can be played like a piano; on another, a candy-striped Venus flytrap takes huge bites when touched; another breaks the Mona Lisa up into a puzzle—upon reassembly, she screams and her eyes fall out of her head. Its devilish fun, but it also has to be said that the staying power of this app has got to be limited. Once readers have figured out the puzzle, there is not much more to discover. Still, the theatrics and the sheer visual power of the app might well keep users coming back time and again.
Vampires rarely come amiss, and von Splatter has a high time amusing and spooking users while it lasts . (iPad storybook app. 5-8)Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: LivoBooks
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2013
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
One of the watershed moments in African-American history—the defeat of James Braddock at the hands of Joe Louis—is here given an earnest picture-book treatment. Despite his lack of athletic ability, Sammy wants desperately to be a great boxer, like his hero, getting boxing lessons from his friend Ernie in exchange for help with schoolwork. However hard he tries, though, Sammy just can’t box, and his father comforts him, reminding him that he doesn’t need to box: Joe Louis has shown him that he “can be the champion at anything [he] want[s].” The high point of this offering is the big fight itself, everyone crowded around the radio in Mister Jake’s general store, the imagined fight scenes played out in soft-edged sepia frames. The main story, however, is so bent on providing Sammy and the reader with object lessons that all subtlety is lost, as Mister Jake, Sammy’s father, and even Ernie hammer home the message. Both text and oil-on-canvas-paper illustrations go for the obvious angle, making the effort as a whole worthy, but just a little too heavy-handed. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 1-58430-161-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Lee & Low Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2004
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