IT'S TYRANNOSAURUS REX!

Name: IT'S TYRANNOSAURUS REX!
Author: Dawn Bentley

by Dawn Bentley & illustrated by Karen Carr & developed by Oceanhouse Media ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 19, 2011

Interactive features are so limited that, platform aside, there isn’t much to choose between this and the print edition.

bookshelf

A melodramatic but gore-free introduction to T. Rex for younger and weak-stomached dino-fans.

Based on a 2004 book-and-CD kit, the episode pairs scenes of a realistically rendered tyrannosaur and several prospective victims in fully detailed natural settings. A perfunctory but rousing storyline—“Tyrannosaurus rex sniffs the air with her powerful nose. She smells lunch!”—is followed by a few closing screens of general facts. Viewers can opt at the beginning for auto or manual advance, audio narration or text only (the audio can be re-activated by touching any block of text). They can also turn off the pounding background music (though not the ongoing loud chorus of insect noises nor, apparently, the occasional popup link to this publisher’s other apps in the App Store). There’s no animation, but a swipe will both change the angle of view and bring up a different block of text, while a second swipe turns the page. Aside from one creature identified only as a “prehistoric bird,” tapping any dino helpfully activates a large label with an audio tag. Despite its bullying ways this toothy predator may draw some sympathy, as one prey animal after another escapes. No sooner does she finally seize and eat a hapless Anatotitan (entirely offstage and sans even crunchy sound effects) than an erupting volcano sends her fleeing.

Interactive features are so limited that, platform aside, there isn’t much to choose between this and the print edition. (iPad informational storybook app. 7-9)

Pub Date: April 19, 2011

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Oceanhouse Media

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011

- BOOK REVIEW
SABER-TOOTH TRAP
by Dawn Bentley ; illustrated by Trevor Reaveley ; developed by Oceanhouse Media

bookshelf

JUST LIKE JESSE OWENS

by Andrew Young & Paula Young Shelton ; illustrated by Gordon C. James ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2022

A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal.

bookshelf

Before growing up to become a major figure in the civil rights movement, a boy finds a role model.

Buffing up a childhood tale told by her renowned father, Young Shelton describes how young Andrew saw scary men marching in his New Orleans neighborhood (“It sounded like they were yelling ‘Hi, Hitler!’ ”). In response to his questions, his father took him to see a newsreel of Jesse Owens (“a runner who looked like me”) triumphing in the 1936 Olympics. “Racism is a sickness,” his father tells him. “We’ve got to help folks like that.” How? “Well, you can start by just being the best person you can be,” his father replies. “It’s what you do that counts.” In James’ hazy chalk pastels, Andrew joins racially diverse playmates (including a White child with an Irish accent proudly displaying the nickel he got from his aunt as a bribe to stop playing with “those Colored boys”) in tag and other games, playing catch with his dad, sitting in the midst of a cheering crowd in the local theater’s segregated balcony, and finally visualizing himself pelting down a track alongside his new hero—“head up, back straight, eyes focused,” as a thematically repeated line has it, on the finish line. An afterword by Young Shelton explains that she retold this story, told to her many times growing up, drawing from conversations with Young and from her own research; family photos are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A pivotal moment in a child’s life, at once stirring and authentically personal. (illustrator’s note) (Autobiographical picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-545-55465-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

bookshelf

I AM RUTH BADER GINSBURG

From the Ordinary People Change the World series

by Brad Meltzer ; illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulos ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 9, 2024

Quick and slick, but ably makes its case.

bookshelf

The distinguished jurist stands tall as a role model.

Not literally tall, of course—not only was she actually tiny but, as with all the other bobbleheaded caricatures in the “Ordinary People Change the World” series, Ginsburg, sporting huge eyeglasses on an outsize head over black judicial robes even in childhood, remains a doll-like figure in all of Eliopoulos’ cartoon scenes. It’s in the frank acknowledgment of the sexism and antisemitism she resolutely overcame as she went from reading about “real female heroes” to becoming one—and also the clear statement of how she so brilliantly applied the principle of “tikkun olam” (“repairing the world”) in her career to the notion that women and men should have the same legal rights—that her stature comes clear. For all the brevity of his profile, Meltzer spares some attention for her private life, too (“This is Marty. He loved me, and he loved my brains. So I married him!”). Other judicial activists of the past and present, all identified and including the current crop of female Supreme Court justices, line up with a diversely hued and abled group of younger followers to pay tribute in final scenes. “Fight for the things you care about,” as a typically savvy final quote has it, “but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

Quick and slick, but ably makes its case. (timeline, photos, source list, further reading) (Picture-book biography. 7-9)