by Nathalie Tousnakhoff & illustrated by Matt Roussell & developed by Square Igloo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 19, 2013
Bernard’s blue family seems fine with the situation, living happily in a pink house and watching all-pink television, but...
The second in an app series called Colorful World, this follow-up to Zoe’s Green Planet (2013) follows Bernard, who is “blue from head to toe” on an all-pink planet.
Bernard’s blue family seems fine with the situation, living happily in a pink house and watching all-pink television, but Bernard is not. After a failed attempt to paint himself pink to fit in with his bullying classmates, Bernard meets a visitor from another planet. It’s Zoe, on her way to visit her friend on the faraway red planet. Zoe and Bernard become friends as they repair Zoe’s ship, and the story ends with the two preparing to fly away together. As with the first app, the star attraction here is the papier-mâché artwork, which lends startling depth and texture to the subtly moving backgrounds and animation. Games integrated into the story (a maze; a fish-sorting challenge) can also be accessed from the main menu, along with options to display text, mute ambient sounds or enable narration. The story feels stale, though. Bernard learns the same lesson—that people of different colors are similar after all—that Zoe did in her app, and ending this volume without the catharsis of space flight disappoints. Taken as a whole with future Colorful World chapters, the series may add up to something greater. Bernard’s story alone is lovely to look at with too few shades between its primary hues. (iPad storybook app. 4-8) .Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Square Igloo
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013
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BOOK REVIEW
by Nathalie Tousnakhoff & illustrated by Matt Roussell & developed by Square Igloo
by Loren Long & illustrated by Loren Long ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2009
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
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More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
by Adam Wallace ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2017
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers.
The bestselling series (How to Catch an Elf, 2016, etc.) about capturing mythical creatures continues with a story about various ways to catch the Easter Bunny as it makes its annual deliveries.
The bunny narrates its own story in rhyming text, beginning with an introduction at its office in a manufacturing facility that creates Easter eggs and candy. The rabbit then abruptly takes off on its delivery route with a tiny basket of eggs strapped to its back, immediately encountering a trap with carrots and a box propped up with a stick. The narrative focuses on how the Easter Bunny avoids increasingly complex traps set up to catch him with no explanation as to who has set the traps or why. These traps include an underground tunnel, a fluorescent dance floor with a hidden pit of carrots, a robot bunny, pirates on an island, and a cannon that shoots candy fish, as well as some sort of locked, hazardous site with radiation danger. Readers of previous books in the series will understand the premise, but others will be confused by the rabbit’s frenetic escapades. Cartoon-style illustrations have a 1960s vibe, with a slightly scary, bow-tied bunny with chartreuse eyes and a glowing palette of neon shades that shout for attention.
This bunny escapes all the traps but fails to find a logical plot or an emotional connection with readers. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-3817-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton
by Alice Walstead ; illustrated by Andy Elkerton
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by Adam Wallace ; illustrated by Christopher Nielsen
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