It's a strikingly beautiful and strange package; though wordy, it's still a worthwhile trip. (iPad storybook app. 4-10)
Visually arresting aliens and planetary vistas make this app worth a visit, but plodding text and uninspired narration make the trip less awe-inspiring that it could have been.
A planet-hopping spaceman offers readers a ride across the galaxy to see the "big gaseous planet Jeffrey," the oceanic 4CC420 and several other wondrous worlds. Judicious use of animation brings the many aliens to wiggling, active life. Slithery green creatures with seven eyes on stalks frolic alongside mops of fur with tiny antlers. The design of the aliens and their home planets—even familiar ones like Mars and Jupiter's moon Europa—are so imaginative readers could easily skip the tiny text that runs (and runs and runs) on each page. The text is not poorly written and contains interesting details and insights ("Perhaps even terrestrial life was born outside planet Earth. Some believe it was born in the water on comets"), but it's very lengthy, essentially a tedious information dump. The stale, matter-of-fact narration doesn't help. It may be that all that text is meant to keep readers lingering longer on each page for the clever, exquisite visuals. Extras include some lovely jigsaw puzzles and a serviceable coloring interface, as well as the option of experiencing the alien ride in the publisher's native Italian.
It's a strikingly beautiful and strange package; though wordy, it's still a worthwhile trip. (iPad storybook app. 4-10)Pub Date: June 15, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: WARE'S ME
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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