Rich in narrative choices, if not interactive features—and maybe not the best choice for a younger child’s first exposure to...
A concise version of the classic tale, with racy manga-style illustrations. Whoo-hoo!
Clad in a ruffled gown that is high of hem and low of décolletage, buxom, square-eyed Snow White poses fetchingly in the first scene beneath a white palace that belongs in a French manuscript illumination and sprawls across a row of dwarven beds (in her underwear, as a tap of the blanket reveals). After falling to the apple offered by her surprisingly young-looking evil stepmother, she lies in her glass coffin among pink roses in a navel-exposing camisole. Enter a shaggy-haired prince, who bends down (with another tap) to give her a smooch and whisk her away to a “happily ever after.” Though (aside from a nifty dissolve in the magic mirror) the animated effects are stiff and simple, a menu button on each of the ten screens allows viewers to select a text and (optional) audio narration in any of eight languages or choose a version without text. Unusually, readers can also control the volumes of the narration, the sound effects and the tinkly orchestral background music separately with sliders.
Rich in narrative choices, if not interactive features—and maybe not the best choice for a younger child’s first exposure to the story, but teen manga fans will love it. (iPad storybook app. 12-16)Pub Date: July 29, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: DICO
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
It’s easy to see that this was written by two Hollywood screenwriters—readers can almost watch the CGI effects unfolding as they go. When the local Viking overlord kills Dane’s father and abducts a childhood friend, he and some neighbors set off on a quest for rescue and revenge that catapults an ill-matched crew into hideous perils and hilarious misadventures. A rollicking page-turner with definite appeal, the book falls short in its historical details, taking liberties with Viking life: Anachronistic language abounds, as do 21st-century concepts, ambitions and family relations. Nonetheless, the plot—of the classic “good commoners vs. evil-lord-with-grandiose-ambitions” variety—churns consistently on, hurtling from disaster to cliffhanger to a climactic deus ex machina resolution. Characterization is not the point; with the exception of Dane and his friend-turned-love interest Astrid, the good guys are all pretty obvious caricatures, while the villains are there to drive the plot. Although it can be overly detailed at times, boys especially will enjoy the pell-mell action, the wisenheimer narration and the belch-and-flatulence humor embedded in the adventurous tale. (Fantasy. 12-15)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-06-144936-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Laura Geringer/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2008
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A solid, timely effort.
Surviving middle school and puberty is an age-old challenge that video cameras and YouTube have only complicated, as vividly demonstrated in this enjoyable, seriocomic tale of new love, culture clash, adolescent social stratification and friendship.
His obsession with girls has already driven a wedge between seventh-grader Alex Schrader and nerdy pals Nomura and Ira (beware geeks with video cameras) at their Brooklyn, boys-only parochial school. Still, when Alex is smitten with a beautiful Haitian student at their sister school, his loyal, inexperienced posse offers aid and (dubious) advice. Bijou Doucet, who lived through Haiti’s horrific earthquake three years earlier, has more on her plate: life with her childless uncle and aunt in a new country whose adolescent culture Bijou’s expected to ignore. No academic superstar (he didn’t know Haiti was in the West Indies) and burdened with a cello-playing older sister, easygoing Alex cheerfully admits to being talent-free. But love leads him to unexpected places: to Flatbush and Haitian rara music, to discover a talent for drumming, to examine unquestioned values and priorities. Meanwhile, classmates threatened by the disruption of the social pecking order take action. Though Alex’s voice is stronger, co-narrator Bijou is sensitively drawn. Farrar handles race and the complexities of interracial relationships by implication, through Alex’s discovery of the vibrant, new (to him) world just blocks away.
A solid, timely effort. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-8027-3394-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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