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FOX AND CRANE

Name: FOX AND CRANE
Author: Mumuin.com

developed by Mumuin.com ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 9, 2014

There’s a moral here, but it’s not the intended one.

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Interactive diversions are given considerably more attention than the story in this multilingual version of the Aesopian fable.

Giving neither Aesop nor any other source a mention, the briefly retold tale has Fox, “wanting to pleaseher [sic] new friend” (rather than to play a trick), inviting Crane over for a “treat” that Crane cannot eat, as it’s served in a bowl. Crane returns the invitation and serves a meal to Fox in a long-necked vase—thus sending her away peeved and ending the supposed friendship. The text is available in six European languages including the original Russian, plus “English USA” and “English GB.” Details vary considerably in these last two versions (which are read in appropriate accents) and don’t always agree with the illustrations: The American Fox serves oatmeal and gets corn chowder in return, and the British one gets soup after dishing up rice pudding, but in neither rendition is any oatmeal, rice or corn visible in the respective kitchen scenes. Furthermore, the wording isn’t always sure in either rendition—the British Crane unintuitively “peck[s] up all the soup”; the American Fox “mill[s] around the pitcher”—and the American moral, “What goes around comes around,” is both absent in the other and likely to flummox young readers in any country. Delicately drawn illustrations with a traceable maze, a “concentration” game and other touch-responsive features can’t compensate for the story’s fundamental incoherence.

There’s a moral here, but it’s not the intended one. (iPad storybook app. 6-8)

Pub Date: Jan. 9, 2014

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Mumuin.com

Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014

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HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE STARRY NIGHT

From the Henry and Mudge series

by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by Sucie Stevenson ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1998

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Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)

Pub Date: April 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-689-81175-6

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS

- BOOK REVIEW
A BOOK OF LOVES
by Cynthia Rylant ; illustrated by Cynthia Rylant

- BOOK REVIEW
HORNBEAM BY AND LARGE
by Cynthia Rylant ; illustrated by Arthur Howard

- BOOK REVIEW
HORNBEAM GETS IT DONE
by Cynthia Rylant ; illustrated by Arthur Howard

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BIG CHICKENS

by Leslie Helakoski & illustrated by Henry Cole ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2006

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With wordplay reminiscent of Margie Palatini at her best, Helakoski takes four timorous chickens into, then out of, the literal and figurative woods. Fleeing the henhouse after catching sight of a wolf, the pusillanimous pullets come to a deep ditch: “ ‘What if we can’t jump that far?’ ‘What if we fall in the ditch?’ ‘What if we get sucked into the mud?’ The chickens tutted, putted, and flutted. They butted into themselves and each other, until one by one . . . ” they do fall in. But then they pick themselves up and struggle out. Ensuing encounters with cows and a lake furnish similar responses and outcomes; ultimately they tumble into the wolf’s very cave, where they “picked, pecked, and pocked. They ruffled, puffled, and shuffled. They shrieked, squeaked, and freaked, until . . . ” their nemesis scampers away in panic. Fluttering about in pop-eyed terror, the portly, partly clothed hens make comical figures in Cole’s sunny cartoons (as does the flummoxed wolf)—but the genuine triumph in their final strut—“ ‘I am a big, brave chicken,’ said one chicken. ‘Ohh . . . ’ said the others. ‘Me too.’ ‘Me three.’ ‘Me four’ ”—brings this tribute to chicken power to a rousing close. (Picture book. 6-8)