by Clare Masterson & developed by Mrs. Fizz's Classroom ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 22, 2013
An understated but illuminating first glimpse at what measurement is all about. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)
A little king breaks his bed and then has to contend with the invention of measurement to find one that is the right size.
This simple app, with minimal interaction and rudimentary storyline, introduces users to a boy-king who loves to bounce on his bed, until he busts the frame “and his bottom hit the floor. ‘Ouch!’ ” If told, his parents would hold him responsible. One of those light bulbs indicating thought illuminates: “He would get a new bed without telling them.” (Kings don’t have to worry about such trivialities as payment.) Toe-to-toe, he paces out the dimensions and gives them to his chamberlain, who gives them to the carpenter, the maker of duvets and the master of mattresses. They, in turn, use their own toe-to-toe measurements and arrive at a very disproportioned bed indeed, true only to the carpenter’s clodhoppers, the duvet maker’s petite tootsies and the mattress maestro’s standard-issues. The wizard is summoned, who produces three sticks of equal length for each of the bed makers. Thus the ruler—oh yes, pun fully intended—was born. Forget about Theodorus of Crete and all those Egyptians, Indians, Chinese and the many unsung creators of measurement—what is at stake here is the standard measure, one of the first and great democratic acts. The interactive element here is easy peasy (even if navigation from page to page throughout the site is not): The active ingredient has a glowing pulse. The settings are enveloped in fire-warmed hues, as befitting bedtime, and the bed is a vision of billowy swells in a royal blue sea, even if the characters are as stiff as cold marionettes.
An understated but illuminating first glimpse at what measurement is all about. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Mrs. Fizz's Classroom
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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by Adam Wallace ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2017
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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by Loren Long & illustrated by Loren Long ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2009
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
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