Taylor’s classic English nursery poem is narrated in a British accent and set to gentle background music befitting its...
First a poem, then a lullaby, often a book and now an app—how we wonder what you... will be next.
Taylor’s classic English nursery poem is narrated in a British accent and set to gentle background music befitting its bedtime-book status, but the real stars of this app are Hague's richly detailed illustrations, which show beautifully on the tablet screen. Set on a blue fabric backdrop, the “book” opens up to reveal his characteristically detailed compositions, here consciously echoing picture-book masters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Full of multiple touch-activated images that evoke childhood's dreams and fairy tales, the pictures lead readers through the evening's journey. Two children sail their little wooden boat across the night sky, where interactive features are plentiful—children swing from the moon, seahorses neigh and babies giggle, just for starters. A 3-D effect enabling the reader to tilt and turn the "book" adds to the dreamy feel. For those who prefer a lullaby, the interactive features also include versions of the song sung by native speakers in Arabic, Chinese, Indonesian, Italian, Nigerian, Russian, Spanish and Welsh but alas, despite the melody's Gallic origins, no French.Pub Date: June 17, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Flying Word
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
Hee haw.
The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty.
In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well.
Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1
Page Count: 26
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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