This app will hold little ones’ interest long enough to eat a bit of porridge before a quick nap, but probably not much...
adapted and illustrated by Jari Huomo & developed by JH Digital Solutions ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 31, 2012
Another iPad adaptation of the infamous ursidae family and their golden-haired intruder.
There are no surprises in this high-definition offering from Huomo, meaning it’s the same story with the same outcome, told in a predictable way. The illustrations are definitely lovely and will look even more stunning on the HD screen of the iPad 3, but beyond that, it’s a typical retelling. The narrative is presented in undistinguished verse (quite common in the classic-meets-tablet genre) and is effective enough at telling the story—if not terribly engaging. In places, the text is redundant, seemingly a slave to meter and rhyme: “But the thing that Papa Bear didn’t realize / was that a little girl, a girl of small size…” Do readers really need a tutorial on what constitutes a “little” girl? Ironically, when Goldilocks turns around to face the reader, she looks more like a middle-age woman than a child. There are some run-of-the-mill animated elements—steaming porridge and transient clouds, for example—and a handful of moderately entertaining yet inconsistent interactive components (items and actions that are interactive on one page may not be on another), but none stand out as particularly unique or innovative.
This app will hold little ones’ interest long enough to eat a bit of porridge before a quick nap, but probably not much longer than that. (iPad storybook app. 3-6)Pub Date: March 31, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: JH Digital Solutions
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2012
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by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 24, 2019
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2021
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS
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