It’s a charmer of a story that could be improved with just a little more production work.
Two animals unhappy with their names make a swap in a whimsical, visually polished app with just a few needed features missing.
Mr. Elephant, a mouse firefighter, and Mr. Mouse, an elephant librarian, are part of a group of animals unhappy with their unfortunately mismatched names. They find some comfort with their support group, S.N.A.F.U. (Silly Named Animals Forever United). Tired of dealing with the confusion, the two decide to take up a friend’s suggestion that they trade, going so far as to swap occupations as well. But after a brief honeymoon, each of them begins to miss his old life and name. With clean, friendly illustrations, the app excels visually. Animations, including a very funny filmstrip-style instructional video, are deftly employed to comedic effect. The title characters are expressive, and their life problems, apt (a small mouse isn’t great at putting out huge fires). It’s clever, but the sound design seems incomplete. Narration is supplemented by some voiced dialogue as well as other sound effects, but the effects are not always smoothly integrated. Some readers will feel the absence of a musical accompaniment. Navigation is limited to forward and backward page turns. Nevertheless, it’s hard not to root for these two likable characters, who manage together to reach a wholly satisfactory resolution.
It’s a charmer of a story that could be improved with just a little more production work. (iPad storybook app. 3-8)Pub Date: Dec. 14, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Jelly Biscuits
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
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
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