Perhaps it’s not for everyone, but there’s a lot to admire. For adults and kids who find it funny, it will be a total gas.
An unusual princess from a faraway land breaks barriers (and wind) in a gorgeously illustrated and humorous fairy tale.
In a tiny, unnamed kingdom, Prince Archibald and his pushy parents seek a bride. The many competing princesses—each with her own quirk—are taken out of contention when the queen puts them through a series of challenges, including one designed to see how they handle cauliflower and broccoli. Here, things take a left turn that will either delight or annoy readers, depending on their tolerance for fart humor. Then Lou, the “Princess of the Wind” arrives. She has terrible table manners, makes silly faces and, most importantly, captures Archibald’s heart. And when she’s tested for flatulence, the silly ending isn’t too difficult to guess: She makes beautiful music with her talented digestive system, securing the throne. This could have been a terrible, tasteless app, but the illustrations are so lovely, the narration and text so poker-faced and the extra features so clever that it works. Offered in French or English, the story is just the right length, and its visuals, set against a backdrop of creased, taped-up papers, allow the story to get away with a lot.
Perhaps it’s not for everyone, but there’s a lot to admire. For adults and kids who find it funny, it will be a total gas. (iPad storybook app. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Audois & Alleuil Editions
Review Posted Online: March 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
A top-grade creepy/funny addition to the spooky-picture-book canon.
Is a cute kitty built in a castle’s laboratory responsible for the bad things that start happening?
“Here is a tale to chill the blood and thrill the soul—a tale of spooky paws and eerie claws.” The disembodied talking skull who narrates this story is alluding to Frankenkitty, who was engineered out of multiple cats, with visible stitches to show for it. As the house ghouls look on, Frankenkitty’s inventor laments, “I’ve created a monster!” Sure enough, bad things start happening: The mummy begins to unravel. Kitchen mice terrorize the cook. Certainly, Frankenkitty must be to blame. But after the butler, who resembles Frankenstein’s Monster, tosses Frankenkitty outside into the snow, where he looks forlorn and adorable, the skull has second thoughts: “Wait! Did we get it wrong?” It’s up to readers to make the call. Powell-Tuck goes all in with her spoof of old-time horror tropes, although kids needn’t know who Boris Karloff is to be tickled. For the book’s every scare (a severed foot and hand, their bones visible), there’s a wink (in a bit of metafictive fun, the skull urges readers to opt for a story about “unicorns, beasts, or bears”). Grey, a glutton for detail, leans on menacing reds and sickly greens to capture the frights, which include, in a line for the spooky-story ages, “walls as gray as old underpants.” Human characters vary in skin tone.
A top-grade creepy/funny addition to the spooky-picture-book canon. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781664300972
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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