Even with some nicely executed animation and an impressive look, the story of the princess and the trapdoor is too slight a...
A visually snazzy app about a bored princess is hamstrung by a weak story.
Princess Petal lives in an enormous castle with busy parents and "...one million toys / And one thousand games, / Dolls and pets, / And a small jet plane." But she's bored: She wants to explore the dark and dangerous place below the forbidden trapdoor. Of course, the scowling Princess Petal ends up below the castle, but what she finds there isn't particularly remarkable, scary or worth the trip. In addition to some squirming worms, a large monster readers never see and handy lights and electrical outlets, her chief discovery is a creature that looks like a mangy dog, which she befriends. It's all the more unsatisfying because the rest of the elements for a great app are in place. The sharp-edged art style, detailed and colorful, includes convincing backgrounds and witty design. And key words in the voluminous text are highlighted with specialized type. The word "ARMOUR," for instance, is in a steely typeface, while "ROAR!" is intensely ragged. Narration is animated and appropriately lilting for the story. But the ho-hum ending and lackluster middle ultimately make Princess Petal a lot less compelling than she should be.
Even with some nicely executed animation and an impressive look, the story of the princess and the trapdoor is too slight a narrative for its production work. (iPad storybook app. 4-9)Pub Date: May 11, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Attic Sound & Music
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 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
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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