Though Alice apps abound, this offers some audio and visual pleasures of its own.
A full version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, expressively read in a semi-British accent and decorated with illustrations that echo the elegant surrealism, and often the composition, of Tenniel’s originals.
The text appears on screens that mimic double-page spreads with patterned headers and, frequently, pale floral vignettes in the margins. It is sandwiched between an introduction composed of lightly massaged passages cut from various Web sources and notes from the artist with links to images of the Renaissance paintings from which many of his figures and landscapes are copied. Along with such mild amusements as watching Alice change sizes in the Sistine Chapel and a lobster quadrille featuring fish-headed dancers with lissome Botticelli bodies, digital enhancements include pinball-style flamingo croquet, among other touch- and tilt-activated movements. Also noteworthy are a disquieting Cheshire Cat with human teeth and hilariously literal Brueghel-style illustrations for “You Are Old, Father William.” On the other hand, Alice doesn’t visibly shrink when she drinks the potion, the “Eat Me” cake is inexplicably transformed to a wordless fortune cookie, and with a head that is clipped from a standard playing card, the Queen of Hearts looks staid rather than properly choleric.
Though Alice apps abound, this offers some audio and visual pleasures of its own. (Requires iOS 6.0 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 10-13)Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Emmanuel Paletz Corp
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats.
Why should grown-ups get all the historical, scientific, athletic, cinematic, and artistic glory?
Choosing exemplars from both past and present, Mitchell includes but goes well beyond Alexander the Great, Anne Frank, and like usual suspects to introduce a host of lesser-known luminaries. These include Shapur II, who was formally crowned king of Persia before he was born, Indian dancer/professional architect Sheila Sri Prakash, transgender spokesperson Jazz Jennings, inventor Param Jaggi, and an international host of other teen or preteen activists and prodigies. The individual portraits range from one paragraph to several pages in length, and they are interspersed with group tributes to, for instance, the Nazi-resisting “Swingkinder,” the striking New York City newsboys, and the marchers of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. Mitchell even offers would-be villains a role model in Elagabalus, “boy emperor of Rome,” though she notes that he, at least, came to an awful end: “Then, then! They dumped his remains in the Tiber River, to be nommed by fish for all eternity.” The entries are arranged in no evident order, and though the backmatter includes multiple booklists, a personality quiz, a glossary, and even a quick Braille primer (with Braille jokes to decode), there is no index. Still, for readers whose fires need lighting, there’s motivational kindling on nearly every page.
A breezy, bustling bucketful of courageous acts and eye-popping feats. (finished illustrations not seen) (Collective biography. 10-13)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-14-751813-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Puffin
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride.
Zipping back and forth in time atop outsized robo–bell bottoms, mad inventor Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) legs his way to center stage in this slightly less-labored continuation of episode 9.
The action commences after a rambling recap and a warning not to laugh or smile on pain of being forced to read Sarah Plain and Tall. Pilkey first sends his peevish protagonist back a short while to save the Earth (destroyed in the previous episode), then on to various prehistoric eras in pursuit of George, Harold and the Captain. It’s all pretty much an excuse for many butt jokes, dashes of off-color humor (“Tippy pressed the button on his Freezy-Beam 4000, causing it to rise from the depths of his Robo-Pants”), a lengthy wordless comic and two tussles in “Flip-o-rama.” Still, the chase kicks off an ice age, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Big Bang (here the Big “Ka-Bloosh!”). It ends with a harrowing glimpse of what George and Harold would become if they decided to go straight. The author also chucks in a poopy-doo-doo song with musical notation (credited to Albert P. Einstein) and plenty of ink-and-wash cartoon illustrations to crank up the ongoing frenzy.
Series fans, at least, will take this outing (and clear evidence of more to come) in stride. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-545-17536-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
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