A bunny brother and sister go with their family to Piper Beach and spend the day splashing, building sand castles and flying kites. That night, back home, the bunnies relive their day in the sun on the living room floor as the bunny parents lie down, exhausted—an unnecessary story diversion in an otherwise quick read. Told in short rhyming stanzas (“Fling your flip-flops—Follow me!”), the app has minimal features, but it doesn’t need many with such sharply written text. Narration in a child’s voice is an option, as is word-highlighting. There are also short audio clips hidden throughout, which are activated by tapping on characters. The warm, earth-toned illustrations portray the stretch of a sunny day and its transition into purple-blue night. It’s too bad, then, that the illustrations themselves appear fuzzy and jagged at the edges, a disappointment on the iPad’s high-resolution screen. (iPad storybook app. 3-5)
Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
Combine monsters, ridiculousness, and audience participation for a delightfully raucous result.
Though this book is all about monsters’ bedtime routines, don’t be fooled—this will induce not sleep but its opposite.
Young readers see each step the monsters take in getting ready for bed and are asked to guess which of several items they might eat for a bedtime snack, use to take a bath and brush their teeth, wear as pajamas, snuggle with, and kiss. The very simple sentences and clues in the bright illustrations allow even the youngest children to “read” this very quickly. “MONSTERS eat bedtime snacks. / Which snack do MONSTERS eat?” A glass of milk, a carrot, a piece of bread, or an umbrella? A turn of the page reveals “MONSTERS eat UMBRELLAS!” Similarly, monsters ignore the rubber ducky, shampoo, and bar of soap in favor of bathing in chocolate pudding. By the third question, most children will have caught on and will be happily blurting out the most ridiculous item on the page, which also happens to stand out clearly from the other three. Helpfully, the author breaks this pattern when it comes to potty time. In his ink, brush, and Photoshop illustrations, Zenz uses bright, plain backgrounds to keep the focus on the characters and their choices. The monsters are adorable and wonderfully diverse in all their multilimbed and -eyed glory, featuring sprouts of hair, horns, tails, and spikes.
Combine monsters, ridiculousness, and audience participation for a delightfully raucous result. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1653-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams Appleseed
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
Nighttime is the right time for young readers thanks to this perfect amalgamation of soothing text and image.
A cut-paper extravaganza welcomes young readers to the wonders of the nighttime.
The titular phrase “In the night garden” kicks off this exploration of a bedtime world. Indeed, those words repeat themselves several times as readers watch fireflies that resemble stars, the opening of perfumed moonflowers, and a black cat that acts as a guide through most of the book. Readers are led on a gentle journey past streams, crickets, and even bullfrogs croaking in the night before we see a tan-skinned child—depicted early on in the story gazing at stars—tucked into bed, yawning. Exceedingly delicate paper collages incorporate everything from ticket stubs and receipts to ledger books to make the darkness magical, the most impressive sight being the dramatically rendered harvest moon, all “fiery red” in the sky. Berger’s pen is just as adept as her scissors as she twists a turn of phrase into its simplest and most evocative form, as when “bats swoop and glide in the bluing sky.” Children are told not to fear when the light is gone or when they hear strange noises. “Just close your eyes and listen,” and young readers will do just that. Indeed, they’ll be unable to resist. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nighttime is the right time for young readers thanks to this perfect amalgamation of soothing text and image. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: July 4, 2023
ISBN: 9780823449866
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
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