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MR. PUNCH IN THE ESCAPE

Name: MR. PUNCH IN THE ESCAPE
Author: BumpBump Books

developed by BumpBump Books ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 5, 2013

Punch and his partner Judy drew enthusiastic audiences in the 19th century; his appeal to the 21st is likely to be...

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A distinctly peculiar app retells a grisly Victorian puppet show.

Readers meet the clownish Mr. Punch in jail. To Punch’s disingenuous narration (and accompanied by objective stage directions), constable Jack Ketch erects a gibbet and prepares to hang the criminal. “What a handsome tree he has planted just opposite the window, for a prospect!” Punch rhapsodizes. Ketch tries to lure Punch into the noose and then commits the cardinal error of any trickster’s victim: Out of frustration, he demonstrates and does himself in. Punch gloats; story ends. The text, uncredited and unglossed, seems to come from a 19th-century puppet-show script by John Payne Collier; the illustrations feature a photo-collaged image of what appears to be a Punch puppet. It’s artfully done; the watercolor illustrations exaggerate the buffoonery of Ketch and his minions, and the kazoo accompaniment couldn’t be more appropriate. But with no credits and no notes of any kind, it’s hard to imagine who it’s for. Scholars of Victorian literature and culture may find it a pleasing bagatelle. Modern children are the apparent audience, judging by the appended bumper-car game that reveals corny dialogue balloons upon successful collisions. Unfamiliar as they are with the show’s conventions, though, what they are to make of it is anyone’s guess.

Punch and his partner Judy drew enthusiastic audiences in the 19th century; his appeal to the 21st is likely to be considerably smaller. (iPad storybook app. 14 & up)

Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2013

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: BumpBump Books

Review Posted Online: March 2, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013

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FUDGE-A-MANIA

by Judy Blume ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1990

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A well-loved author brings together, on a Maine vacation, characters from two of her books. Peter's parents have assured him that though Sheila ("The Great") Tubman and her family will be nearby, they'll have their own house; but instead, they find a shared arrangement in which the two families become thoroughly intertwined—which suits everyone but the curmudgeonly Peter. Irrepressible little brother Fudge, now five, is planning to marry Sheila, who agrees to babysit with Peter's toddler sister; there's a romance between the grandparents in the two families; and the wholesome good fun, including a neighborhood baseball game featuring an aging celebrity player, seems more important than Sheila and Peter's halfhearted vendetta. The story's a bit tame (no controversies here), but often amusingly true to life and with enough comic episodes to satisfy fans.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1990

ISBN: 0-525-44672-9

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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GOING, GOING, GONE! WITH THE PAIN & THE GREAT ONE
by Judy Blume & illustrated by James Stevenson

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COOL ZONE WITH THE PAIN & THE GREAT ONE
by Judy Blume & illustrated by James Stevenson

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SOUPY SATURDAYS WITH THE PAIN & THE GREAT ONE
by Judy Blume & illustrated by James Stevenson

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RED-EYED TREE FROG

by Joy Cowley ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1999

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Bishop’s spectacular photographs of the tiny red-eyed tree frog defeat an incidental text from Cowley (Singing Down the Rain, 1997, etc.). The frog, only two inches long, is enormous in this title; it appears along with other nocturnal residents of the rain forests of Central America, including the iguana, ant, katydid, caterpillar, and moth. In a final section, Cowley explains how small the frog is and aspects of its life cycle. The main text, however, is an afterthought to dramatic events in the photos, e.g., “But the red-eyed tree frog has been asleep all day. It wakes up hungry. What will it eat? Here is an iguana. Frogs do not eat iguanas.” Accompanying an astonishing photograph of the tree frog leaping away from a boa snake are three lines (“The snake flicks its tongue. It tastes frog in the air. Look out, frog!”) that neither advance nor complement the action. The layout employs pale and deep green pages and typeface, and large jewel-like photographs in which green and red dominate. The combination of such visually sophisticated pages and simplistic captions make this a top-heavy, unsatisfying title. (Picture book. 7-9)