Emma's world is neat, if a little grim, in concept, but without narrative development, it's as paper-thin as Emma's pop-up...
An eye-pleasing, imaginative ride through a dark pop-up–book world that's unfortunately too choppy and short to truly take flight.
In a paper city where everything is attached to the storybook by paper tabs, a girl named Emma manages to free herself and go on an adventure by tearing the tab on a hot air balloon. Text and narration along the way tells readers what they already see in the illustrations, that "[t]he fields were vast" and that "[t]he forest was dangerous." Even riskier are a paper tornado and a hole in the sky, the literal "The End" that would complete Emma's tale. She backtracks, terrified, and is able to get back on paper ground and make a home for herself among the pop-up buildings. For such a beautifully animated app, it's a shame that the story itself is so brief, lacking detailed twists and turns. The app also insists that readers interact with it only on its terms. Readers are instructed to "Tear!" "Jump!" "Tap!" in specific, purple-colored spots, and the story stops until the commands are obeyed. It stops the flow of the story cold and makes it feel more like operating a remote control than a fully formed iPad storybook.
Emma's world is neat, if a little grim, in concept, but without narrative development, it's as paper-thin as Emma's pop-up surroundings. (iPad storybook app. 5-10)Pub Date: March 23, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Grids Interactive
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
Continuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long (The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. After the big new yellow tractor, crowds of overalls-clad locals and a red fire engine all fail to pull her out, the little tractor (who had been left behind the barn to rust after the arrival of the new tractor) comes putt-puff-puttedy-chuff-ing down the hill to entice his terrified bovine buddy successfully back to dry ground. Short on internal logic but long on creamy scenes of calf and tractor either gamboling energetically with a gaggle of McCloskey-like geese through neutral-toned fields or resting peacefully in the shade of a gnarled tree (apple, not cork), the episode will certainly draw nostalgic adults. Considering the author’s track record and influences, it may find a welcome from younger audiences too. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-399-25248-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2009
SEEN & HEARD
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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