The app price ($7.99 at the time of review) may make you squeal, but still it’s a creative and charming alternative to...
After complaining that a common fairy tale is boring and predictable, Tom is “spelled” into the story by his witch-grandmother.
Granny Mag is a witch—not the wart-covered, child-eating kind; she’s what Samantha Stephens of Bewitched fame might have been like as a senior citizen. When her grandson Tom balks at “The Three Little Pigs” as a bedtime story, Granny Mag picks up her wand, gives him a snout and casts a spell that drops him in to the story. Tom immediately sets out to warn the pigs of their impending doom, and each time the wolf shows up, Tom saves the day by outsmarting him. Interactive features are plentiful—a growling wolf, a melodic guitar, chuckling pigs, to name just a few—but when a touch accidentally becomes a minor swipe, it turns the page prematurely (annoying, but avoidable with practice). Bold colors and sharp illustrations make visual engagement easy, and characters are well drawn—both in a literary and an artistic sense. The wolf even elicits a little sympathy, as he’s clearly disoriented and frustrated by the fourth pig (Tom). There are auto-play and read-it-myself options, but an added bonus is that readers can opt for narration on a page-by-page basis.
The app price ($7.99 at the time of review) may make you squeal, but still it’s a creative and charming alternative to standard swine fare. (iPad storybook app. 5-9)Pub Date: June 14, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Maverick Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 9, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2011
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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Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book.
Ada Twist’s incessant stream of questions leads to answers that help solve a neighborhood crisis.
Ada conducts experiments at home to answer questions such as, why does Mom’s coffee smell stronger than Dad’s coffee? Each answer leads to another question, another hypothesis, and another experiment, which is how she goes from collecting data on backyard birds for a citizen-science project to helping Rosie Revere figure out how to get her uncle Ned down from the sky, where his helium-filled “perilous pants” are keeping him afloat. The Questioneers—Rosie the engineer, Iggy Peck the architect, and Ada the scientist—work together, asking questions like scientists. Armed with knowledge (of molecules and air pressure, force and temperature) but more importantly, with curiosity, Ada works out a solution. Ada is a recognizable, three-dimensional girl in this delightfully silly chapter book: tirelessly curious and determined yet easily excited and still learning to express herself. If science concepts aren’t completely clear in this romp, relationships and emotions certainly are. In playful full- and half-page illustrations that break up the text, Ada is black with Afro-textured hair; Rosie and Iggy are white. A closing section on citizen science may inspire readers to get involved in science too; on the other hand, the “Ode to a Gas!” may just puzzle them. Other backmatter topics include the importance of bird study and the threat palm-oil use poses to rainforests.
Adventure, humor, and smart, likable characters make for a winning chapter book. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: April 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3422-9
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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