In the end, Hannah gives in to her grandfather’s elaborate, made-up story and accepts the licorice. Perhaps she was just...
A missing peppermint sends a young girl and her grandfather on a journey to where missing things go in a strikingly illustrated but too-thin story.
When Hannah asks her grandfather if he’s seen her missing candy in the family living room, he offers her a piece of licorice, as he has eaten the peppermint himself. Rather than confessing, Grandpa spins a tale of the Land of Mislaid, where lost objects go. Using items from the living room, such as teapots, a clock, and a salt-and-pepper set, Grandpa leads Hannah through outsized fantasies on the way to finding the missing candy. While the settings are fanciful, such as the “Twilight Peninsula, where lamps sparkled in the night,” character development seems to have been mislaid. Hannah and her grandfather have no personalities to speak of beyond the obvious (she is young and curious; he is willing to go to great lengths to entertain his granddaughter). Only the exaggerated visuals—giant heads and bodies with tiny limbs—give them life. The illustrations, convincing, animated miniworlds of gigantic fish and table-salty seas, are the primary reason to read the story, which presents so much text on most pages that whole paragraphs scroll right off the bottom of the screen.
In the end, Hannah gives in to her grandfather’s elaborate, made-up story and accepts the licorice. Perhaps she was just tired of hearing his drawn-out story. (Requires iOS 7 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 3-8)Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: YipYip
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
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
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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