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BLUE BERNARD

Name: BLUE BERNARD
Author: Nathalie Tousnakhoff

From the Colorful World series

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...

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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) .

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

- BOOK REVIEW
ZOE'S GREEN PLANET
by Nathalie Tousnakhoff & illustrated by Matt Roussell & developed by Square Igloo

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OTIS

From the Otis series

by Loren Long & illustrated by Loren Long ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2009

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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OTIS AND THE SCARECROW
by Loren Long ; illustrated by Loren Long

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AN OTIS CHRISTMAS
by Loren Long ; illustrated by Loren Long

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OTIS AND THE PUPPY
by Loren Long ; illustrated by Loren Long

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NEVER FORGET ELEANOR
by Jason June ; illustrated by Loren Long

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CHANGE SINGS
by Amanda Gorman ; illustrated by Loren Long

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SOMEONE BUILDS THE DREAM
by Lisa Wheeler ; illustrated by Loren Long

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Loren Long Inks Book Deal With Roaring Brook Press

PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

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PETE THE CAT'S 12 GROOVY DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

by James Dean ; illustrated by James Dean ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 18, 2018

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among

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Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.

If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”

Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)