developed by itbook ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2013
Feature-rich and slickly designed and illustrated, this app is at once hilarious and disquieting.
A Tim Burton–esque variation on the classic story, definitely not for the weak of heart.
Related in English or Spanish by a nonoptional narrator who is sometimes drowned out by the sound effects, the tale sends defunct Little Red, er, Dead—unaware that her basket holds poisoned pastries—through the woods to her still-living grandmother’s. Fortunately, Grandmother has been tipped off. Muttering that “they used to call me ‘Ramba’ when I was young,” she gathers enough heavy ordinance to invade North Korea (plus a tap-activated lightsaber) and greets her grandchild with a hail of gunfire. Unfortunately, Grandmother has a short memory and so dies histrionically after chowing down on the basket’s contents. This gothic knee-slapper alternates between text pages with line-drawn illustrations and elaborately crafted scenes featuring vanishing dialogue, spooky shadows and macabre interactive effects. Little Dead’s tendency to pop up suddenly in the foreground, flashing her fleshless grin and rolling her single eye, is particularly shriek-worthy. A hapless wolf named Lupito offers comic relief—plus, following a fall down Grandma’s chimney, a main course. A button on the title page links to sets of sketchbook pages and wipe-away scenes.
Feature-rich and slickly designed and illustrated, this app is at once hilarious and disquieting. (iPad storybook app. 9-13)Pub Date: March 17, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: itbook
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
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by J. Torres ; illustrated by David Namisato ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2021
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel.
Sandy and his family, Japanese Canadians, experience hatred and incarceration during World War II.
Sandy Saito loves baseball, and the Vancouver Asahi ballplayers are his heroes. But when they lose in the 1941 semifinals, Sandy’s dad calls it a bad omen. Sure enough, in December 1941, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in the U.S. The Canadian government begins to ban Japanese people from certain areas, moving them to “dormitories” and setting a curfew. Sandy wants to spend time with his father, but as a doctor, his dad is busy, often sneaking out past curfew to work. One night Papa is taken to “where he [is] needed most,” and the family is forced into an internment camp. Life at the camp isn’t easy, and even with some of the Asahi players playing ball there, it just isn’t the same. Trying to understand and find joy again, Sandy struggles with his new reality and relationship with his father. Based on the true experiences of Japanese Canadians and the Vancouver Asahi team, this graphic novel is a glimpse of how their lives were affected by WWII. The end is a bit abrupt, but it’s still an inspiring and sweet look at how baseball helped them through hardship. The illustrations are all in a sepia tone, giving it an antique look and conveying the emotions and struggles. None of the illustrations of their experiences are overly graphic, making it a good introduction to this upsetting topic for middle-grade readers.
An emotional, much-needed historical graphic novel. (afterword, further resources) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0334-0
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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by J. Torres ; illustrated by Aurélie Grand
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by Jasmine Warga ; illustrated by Matt Rockefeller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2022
The intelligences here may be (mostly) artificial, but the feelings are genuine and deep.
A Mars rover discovers that it has a heart to go with its two brains.
Warga follows her cybernetic narrator from first awareness to final resting place—and stony indeed will be any readers who remain unmoved by the journey. Though unable to ask questions of the hazmats (named for their suits) assembling it in a NASA lab, the rover, dubbed Resilience by an Ohio sixth grader, gets its first inklings of human feelings from two workers who talk to it, play it music, and write its pleasingly bug-free code. Other machines (even chatty cellphones) reject the notion that there’s any real value to emotions. But the longer those conversations go, the more human many start sounding, particularly after Res lands in Mars’ Jezero Crater and, with help from Fly, a comically excitable drone, and bossy satellite Guardian, sets off on twin missions to look for evidence of life and see if an older, silenced rover can be brought back online. Along with giving her characters, human and otherwise, distinct voices and engaging personalities, the author quietly builds solid relationships (it’s hardly a surprise when, after Fly is downed in a dust storm, Res trundles heroically to the rescue in defiance of orders) on the way to rest and joyful reunions years later. A subplot involving brown-skinned, Arabic-speaking NASA coder Rania unfolds through her daughter Sophia’s letters to Res.
The intelligences here may be (mostly) artificial, but the feelings are genuine and deep. (afterword, resources) (Science fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-311392-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
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