A mostly solid piece of garage building with winning characters and very cool robots.
Backyard robot-building is the order of the day in an app that will appeal most to budding tinkerers.
Two young friends, Hanna and Henri, meet up to visit Hanna's aunt, a goggles- and apron-clad inventor. Hanna and Henri work together to create their own robot (with some help from readers to sort parts and choose the creation's look in one of several challenges). How much readers enjoy this will depend on their tolerance for extraneous characters and locations that have nothing to do with the main story. There are also two minor annoyances: The text is too tiny to be read without manually adjusting its size (an option in an easy-to-access sliding menu), and load times between screens feel slow in this otherwise very responsive app. On the other hand, the app has pleasingly detail-heavy art that appears hand-drawn, and the depictions of women and girls in the story as inventors and robot builders are refreshing. But perhaps the biggest selling point is that the central robot project can be built in lots of different ways, making the story one that invites repeated read-throughs. The animation is fluid, and the resulting robots never fail to be worth the trouble. There are even pages of bios for all the story characters.
A mostly solid piece of garage building with winning characters and very cool robots. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 4-10)Pub Date: April 26, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Tales & Dice AB
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available.
A ghost learns to appreciate his differences.
The little ghost protagonist of this title is unusual. He’s a quilt, not a lightweight sheet like his parents and friends. He dislikes being different despite his mom’s reassurance that his ancestors also had unconventional appearances. Halloween makes the little ghost happy, though. He decides to watch trick-or-treaters by draping over a porch chair—but lands on a porch rail instead. A mom accompanying her daughter picks him up, wraps him around her chilly daughter, and brings him home with them! The family likes his looks and comforting warmth, and the little ghost immediately feels better about himself. As soon as he’s able to, he flies out through the chimney and muses happily that this adventure happened only due to his being a quilt. This odd but gently told story conveys the importance of self-respect and acceptance of one’s uniqueness. The delivery of this positive message has something of a heavy-handed feel and is rushed besides. It also isn’t entirely logical: The protagonist could have been a different type of covering; a blanket, for instance, might have enjoyed an identical experience. The soft, pleasing illustrations’ palette of tans, grays, white, black, some touches of color, and, occasionally, white text against black backgrounds suggest isolation, such as the ghost feels about himself. Most humans, including the trick-or-treating mom and daughter, have beige skin. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-16.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 66.2% of actual size.)
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6447-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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