A none-too-interesting detour before bedtime, this app based on a British children's show exhibits frustrating navigation quirks and not nearly enough personality.
One of two apps simultaneously released featuring a ribbon-and-button–tressed little girl and her friends (some of whom happen to be animals), this one involves a disturbance at a slumber party. The coed/cospecies sleepover is interrupted by a loud moaning sound that Rosie and her friends investigate. Not to spoil the mystery, but the app could have been called, We Heard a Noise; It Was an Anthropomorphic Oak Tree That Was Drying Out. Complicating things is a fussy design that expects readers to remember what different kinds of icons do (a star versus a star with a circle around it, for instance) and to follow the dialogue by tapping on word balloons that appear as the next character is ready to speak. Some pages have big, gaudy borders around them, others don't. Some pages are fully animated, others are text-heavy. Sometimes there's a delay when a button is pressed, and sometimes virtual objects take too long to respond to touch, like a watering can that can take a few tries to pick up and use. Rosie's nighttime app is a rote story done no favors by very inconsistent design.
For fans, this could be a must-download, but for the uninitiated, there's not much in Rosie's bedtime adventure to make them curious for more. (optimized for iPad 2 and above) (iPad storybook app. 3-7)Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Egmont UK
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2013
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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
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A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
Categories: CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S
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