Overdone and unevenly baked.
An app about a child learning to cook has some charming moments, but they’re mixed together to bad effect with unfortunate design and writing choices.
When Lisa is given a set of children’s dishware for her sixth birthday, she begins preparing toy food for her stuffed animals and dolls. Her mother shows Lisa how to make real meals, guiding her in a primer of ingredients, kitchen tools, hygiene and safety. It’s a good, detailed set of lessons. Some pages appear as colorful lists on a background of notebook paper. Other pages show Lisa and her mother interacting in the kitchen with food and appliances while the child’s toys look on. But too many pages are filled with overlong, unbroken blocks of text, and generic, ugly navigation buttons at the bottom of each page work against the entertaining artwork. The juxtaposition of well-designed pages with plenty of animations and wit against more inert pages emphasizes ho-hum writing and derails what could have been a focused, entertaining story. At one point in one of these text-heavy pages, Lisa’s mother says, “Well, I see you are pretty bored with all this talking. Let’s do something more exciting!” Oh, the irony.
Overdone and unevenly baked. (iPad storybook app. 5-9)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Glowberry Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
"From the beginning the baby was a disappointment to her mother," Cooney (The Story of Christmas, 1995, etc.) begins in this biography of Eleanor Roosevelt. She is a plain child, timid and serious; it is clear that only a few people loved her. After her parents die, she is cared for in the luxurious homes of wealthy relatives, but does not find acceptance until she arrives in a British boarding school, where she thrives on the attention of the headmistress, who guides, teaches, and inspires her. Cooney does not gloss over the girl's misery and disappointments; she also shows the rare happy times and sows the seeds of Eleanor's future work. The illustrations of house interiors often depict Eleanor as an isolated, lonely figure, her indistinct face and hollow eyes watching from a distance the human interactions she does not yet enjoy. Paintings reveal the action of a steamship collision; the hectic activity of a park full of children and their governesses; a night full of stars portending the girl's luminous future. The image of plain Eleanor being fitted with her first beautiful dress is an indelible one. Readers will be moved by the unfairness of her early life and rejoice when she finds her place in the world. An author's note supplies other relevant information. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-670-86159-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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