MIDNIGHT FEAST

Name: MIDNIGHT FEAST
Author: Lynley Stace

by Lynley Stace ; illustrated by Lynley Stace ; developed by Slap Happy Larry ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2013

Beautiful, haunting and completely original, Roya’s tale is a 12-course meal of intelligent storytelling. (activities,...

bookshelf

An intricate, sophisticated and dreamy story of a teen’s hunger for not only food, but the world she’s built in her imagination.

In a near future where drought and poverty are the norm, teenage Roya longs for a rich midnight feast so she might forget her worn surroundings—but when she finally stays up for it, is not what she hoped. As with developer Slap Happy Larry’s previous effort, The Artifacts (2011), this app is packed with telling details, ripe artwork and an underlying melancholy. Moody, dark-hued painted pages detailing Roya’s daily life alternate with “B-pages” in which Roya’s mind fills with daydreams, nightmares or literal interpretations of things she hears or thinks; when she imagines her parents laughing their heads off, it’s shown. Many of Roya’s mental wanderings are less disturbing and more transcendent: She imagines a dance hall of shadowy partners in the body of her father’s guitar or a movie theater filling with popcorn. The sum of striking visuals, smartly restrained audio cues, subtle voice acting, unobtrusive narration and navigation, and always-relevant iPad interactive elements is more resonant than overwhelming. Younger readers may be confused and spooked by some of the story’s content; there’s an option to eliminate the “scary sauce” in the story (cleverly represented by a ketchup bottle).

Beautiful, haunting and completely original, Roya’s tale is a 12-course meal of intelligent storytelling. (activities, reading notes) (iPad storybook app. 9-16)

Pub Date: July 30, 2013

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Slap Happy Larry

Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2013

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ARTIFACTS
by Lynley Stace & illustrated by Lynley Stace & developed by Slap Happy Larry

bookshelf

FACTS OF LIFE

STORIES

by Gary Soto ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2008

bookshelf

A young man who unwittingly helps a punk steal an elderly couple’s television in the first story sets the somewhat uneasy tone for this collection. While glimpses of Soto’s characteristic humor and charm appear in later stories, many of these tales focus on less-than-comfortable events and experiences. There’s a girl whose tattooed and pierced babysitter dyes her younger brother’s hair orange and green, a fact sure to enrage their mom when she eventually finds out; a child who is achingly aware of the enmity of anti-war protesters and simultaneously proud of her immigrant parents’ efforts to improve their lives; and a sad young boy whose painfully polite parents have frozen him out of the family without apparently meaning to do so. Each situation is distinct, clearly drawn and immediate. Soto presents his characters with sometimes insurmountable challenges, but he limns their lives with such vivid descriptions and insights that readers will be left wondering how things work out—and wishing for the best. (Fiction. 11-14)

Pub Date: May 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-15-206181-4

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
GONE VIRAL
by Gary Soto ; illustrated by James Otis Smith

- BOOK REVIEW
PUPPY LOVE
by Gary Soto

- BOOK REVIEW
LUCKY LUIS
by Gary Soto & illustrated by Rhode Montijo

bookshelf

REGARDING THE FOUNTAIN

A TALE, IN LETTERS, OF LIARS AND LEAKS

by Kate Klise & illustrated by M. Sarah Klise ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

bookshelf

It starts off innocently enough, with principal Walter Russ asking artist Florence Waters to sell him a drinking fountain for the Dry Creek Middle School. But art and bureaucracy are about as different as, well, flood and drought, and this book pits such opposites with hilarious results. Town villains Dee Eel (president of Dry Creek Water Company) and Sally Mander (chief executive of the Dry Creek Swimming Pool) absconded with the town's water supply, turning what used to be Spring Creek into Dry Creek. This all gets uncovered by ``Sam N.'s fifth-grade class,'' who is doing a project on the history of the town. What makes this tale an unequivocal delight is that it's told through letter, memos, newspaper clippings, school announcements, and inventive black-and-white drawings; even less-skilled readers will be drawn in by the element of perusing ``other people's mail'' to find out why Spring Creek went dry, and to decode the water-related names of the characters. Florence and her intriguing attitude and art win over the class, Sam, and even the stuffy principal—how she does it is part of a tale overflowing with imagination and fun. (Fiction. 9-13)