Overall, the disappointingly bland treatment stifles the Seussian silliness readers expect.
This "omBook" adaptation of the newly released posthumous collection of seven Seuss stories is a sadly telling demonstration of the dangers of one-size-fits-all app development.
The look is clean, in keeping with Oceanhouse’s relatively conservative approach, with four to 12 lines of text on the screen next to an image. In read-it-myself and read-to-me modes, a swipe causes additional lines of text to appear on the screen, sometimes accompanied by a slight shift in the image's position, until the end of the book's printed page; only then does the app page turn. (In auto-play, readers are spared the swiping.) Word labels appear as readers touch figures on the screen—"shirt"; "Ikka"; "me"—and readers can press individual words in the text, triggering highlights and voiced pronunciation. But where this works beautifully with an early reader such as Green Eggs and Ham, it underwhelms with this book, which features very long lines of rhymed text and relatively few pictures. Readers find themselves looking at the same images as the text unfurls, swipe after swipe; one image in the titular story requires 10 swipes before the page turns. The need to compress the text onto the screen frequently results in lines that are cut in half, visually hamstringing the couplets. Moreover, not only do readers of the printed book enjoy the freedom of the page turn, they also get Charles D. Cohen's illuminating introduction.
Overall, the disappointingly bland treatment stifles the Seussian silliness readers expect. (iPad storybook app. 6-9)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Oceanhouse Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
What a wag.
What do you get from sewing the head of a smart dog onto the body of a tough police officer? A new superhero from the incorrigible creator of Captain Underpants.
Finding a stack of old Dog Mancomics that got them in trouble back in first grade, George and Harold decide to craft a set of new(ish) adventures with (more or less) improved art and spelling. These begin with an origin tale (“A Hero Is Unleashed”), go on to a fiendish attempt to replace the chief of police with a “Robo Chief” and then a temporarily successful scheme to make everyone stupid by erasing all the words from every book (“Book ’Em, Dog Man”), and finish off with a sort of attempted alien invasion evocatively titled “Weenie Wars: The Franks Awaken.” In each, Dog Man squares off against baddies (including superinventor/archnemesis Petey the cat) and saves the day with a clever notion. With occasional pauses for Flip-O-Rama featurettes, the tales are all framed in brightly colored sequential panels with hand-lettered dialogue (“How do you feel, old friend?” “Ruff!”) and narrative. The figures are studiously diverse, with police officers of both genders on view and George, the chief, and several other members of the supporting cast colored in various shades of brown. Pilkey closes as customary with drawing exercises, plus a promise that the canine crusader will be further unleashed in a sequel.
What a wag. (Graphic fantasy. 7-9)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-58160-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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