An enjoyable trip to the zoo? Readers would be better off going in person or exploring the many other options available in...
A customizable child goes to the zoo with his or her father.
As young readers open this app, they are asked to choose the name and gender of the main character and to choose an avatar (happily, a number of skin colors and ethnicities are provided, though none has explicitly Asian features). The story then uses this name and adjusts the illustrations to match. While this is nifty at first, it does not make up for the lackluster storytelling or interactive features. Some suspense is injected into the basic trip-to-the-zoo storyline when the main character hides in the zookeeper’s food cart, but essentially, this app is created to teach readers about different animals’ diets and habitats. The app does not provide any narration or touch-activated animated interactions. On each screen, readers may tap a star to learn more facts about the zoo animals, take simple quizzes about animals’ diets and sometimes hear recordings of animal sounds. The digital artwork is colorful but on the cold side, with only a few facial details. From the main screen, users can play more games—matching facts from the story to particular animals, the “feed the animals” quizzes from the story and a simple coloring game.
An enjoyable trip to the zoo? Readers would be better off going in person or exploring the many other options available in both print and tablet formats. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: ConsumerSoft
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 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
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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