The insects are cute but not worth the price of admission: storytelling fail.
The design and presentation of this familiar fable make it a sloppy, frustrating read.
This French version of Aesop’s “The Grasshopper and the Ant,” penned by the 17th-century fabulist and poet, is a lesson in interactive integration. There’s a tricky balance to adapting classics for reading on an iPad, in that it’s necessary to marry text to technology in a cohesive way. This app fails to do that. The narrative appears to be a loose paraphrase of the French original, and sentences are strung over multiple pages, which isn’t usually a problem with traditional books. But in this app’s interactive mode, there are tactile things to do before advancing to the next page. The taps and swipes yield lackluster payoffs—a chirping bird, a buzzing bee, or wiping frost off of windows, to name a few—but they must be completed before the page can be turned. By the time they’re exhausted and the sentence is continued on the next page, the fragment hangs without context. For example, the text on one page reads, “Not a single morsel of fly or tiny worm.” It’s not only grammatically incorrect, it’s nonsensical. Engaging dialogue could have easily driven this moral home, but instead, the tale drops off a cliff when the ant tells the cicada to start dancing.
The insects are cute but not worth the price of admission: storytelling fail. (iPad storybook app. 3-6)Pub Date: March 2, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Seven Academy
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property.
Since a reformed Grinch is hardly any fun, this follow-up Grinches him up once more.
Those seeking more of the same, prepare to receive precisely that. Christmas is coming (again!), and the Grinch can hardly wait. He’s been patient all year, and now he can finally show the Whos down in Who-ville how much he’s changed. When the Grinch learns of a tree-decorating contest, he figures that if he wins, it’ll prove he truly has the Christmas spirit. He throws himself into the task, but when it comes time to judge the trees, the Grinch is horrified to discover that he’s received only the second-place trophy. Can Cindy-Lou Who find the words to save the day? Replicating many of the original beats and wordplay of the original, this tale feels like less a sequel and more like a vaguely rewritten variation. Meanwhile, Ruiz’s art seeks to bridge the gap between the animated Chuck Jones version of the Grinch and the one depicted in the original book. This thankless task results in a strange uncanny valley between Seuss and Jones but does allow the artist a chance to colorize everything and lend some racial diversity to the Who population (Cindy-Lou is light-skinned). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780593563168
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school...
The familiar theme of the challenges facing a new kid in town is given an original treatment by photographer Border in this book of photos of three-dimensional objects in a simple modeled landscape.
Peanut Butter is represented by a slice of white bread spread with the popular condiment. The other characters in the story—a hamburger with a pair of hot dogs in tow, a bowl of alphabet soup, a meatball jumping a rope of spaghetti, a carton of French fries and a pink cupcake—are represented by skillfully crafted models of these foods, anthropomorphized using simple wire construction. Rejected by each character in turn in his search for playmates, Peanut Butter discovers in the end that Jelly is his true match (not Cupcake, as the title suggests), perhaps because she is the only one who looks like him, being a slice of white bread spread with jelly. The friendly foods end up happily playing soccer together. Some parents may have trouble with the unabashedly happy depiction of carbs and American junk food (no carrots or celery sticks in this landscape), and others may find themselves troubled by the implication that friendship across difference is impossible.
Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school experiences. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16773-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
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