A thrill a minute, epic in scope but not length, and embellished with visual and digital delights.
A rousingly violent Eastern European folk tale laced with heroic exploits and treachery, kitted out with intricate, richly detailed illustrations.
Best known in its Ukrainian version, “Pea-Roll Along,” the tale features a pea-boy with a big mace. He pounds a dragon into an iron threshing floor, goes on to trap and then kill a long-bearded sorcerer in an underground kingdom, cuts off a piece of his own leg to feed a griffin and ultimately marries a princess. Despite rough spots in the translation (“Rolling Pea held up his finger and the mace struck his finger and a mace was chopped apart”), the story moves along briskly thanks to its plain language and steady focus on action. On the optional audio track a narrator provides a smoothly professional reading to which crisp sound effects and fanfares add well-placed flourishes. Along with one monochrome screen to color in and a game in which viewers use their own fingers to shatter falling maces, both the screens with text and the several wordless scenes offer numerous wheels, characters and natural features that move by themselves or respond to taps or tilts. Rolling Pea, feet invisible beneath huge green pantaloons, cuts a figure at once dashing and comical.
A thrill a minute, epic in scope but not length, and embellished with visual and digital delights. (thumbnail index) (iPad folk-tale app. 8-10)Pub Date: Dec. 22, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: KievSeaPirates
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Told from the point of view of two warring siblings, this could have been an engaging first chapter book. Unfortunately, the length makes it less likely to appeal to the intended audience. Jessie and Evan are usually good friends as well as sister and brother. But the news that bright Jessie will be skipping a grade to join Evan’s fourth-grade class creates tension. Evan believes himself to be less than clever; Jessie’s emotional maturity doesn’t quite measure up to her intelligence. Rivalry and misunderstandings grow as the two compete to earn the most money in the waning days of summer. The plot rolls along smoothly and readers will be able to both follow the action and feel superior to both main characters as their motivations and misconceptions are clearly displayed. Indeed, a bit more subtlety in characterization might have strengthened the book’s appeal. The final resolution is not entirely believable, but the emphasis on cooperation and understanding is clear. Earnest and potentially successful, but just misses the mark. (Fiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: April 23, 2007
ISBN: 0-618-75043-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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