It’s a bit mannered, but high production values and a realistic mix of behavioral ups and downs keep it from turning twee or...
In this pretty if occasionally precious app, a mercurial child’s moods and whims find allegorical counterparts in the flower garden she plants.
Being initially dismissive of the 16 seeds she is given, her first careless toss grows up Spoiled (Primula putris) with a “ring of slimy petals / that smelled of black bananas.” Soon, though, a lighter mood sows Cheerfulness (Helianthus hilaris), followed by positives from Hope (Asclepias spes) to Diligence (Viticula industria). Her progress is not without incidents of backsliding, like Tattle Tale (Proditio pusilla), with its “smell of rats,” and Fibs (Mendacium delicatum). Ultimately she plants Gratitude (Iris memoris), then gathers up all the seeds from “the cottage gardens of our hearts” to pass on to others. Herz and Scott’s measured free verse is cast into italics with decorated initials, and Stokes’ illustrations, which appear opposite, begin, mostly, with delicate seeds placed on elegantly plain backdrops. Tapping an icon under each page of narrative causes the seeds to open, grow twining stems and burst into recognizable but fancifully altered flowers as bees, butterflies and the tiny girl look on or drift playfully past. There is no audio track. The final lush garden scene, accessible from any screen, functions as an interactive index and also features instructions for sharing sample illustrations via email.
It’s a bit mannered, but high production values and a realistic mix of behavioral ups and downs keep it from turning twee or labored. (Requires iOS 6 and above.) (iPad poetry app. 6-10)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Coliloquy, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
