developed by OhNoo Studio ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 12, 2012
This app gets so much right that it's a shame it ends up offering too much of a good thing.
An attractively creepy-cute app gets bogged down in too many distracting extra features to tell a great story.
The world of Amelia—a sunken-eyed girl who hangs around with a kitten, a tortoise and a living, breathing teddy bear—is more than a bit overcrowded. On half the pages of her gorgeously gothic app, taps reveal a variety of critters below the surface. On alternating pages that resemble a traditional storybook, repulsive animals such as giant spiders or slimy caterpillars cross the screen as readers try to pay attention to the story. At first, it’s cool; the beautifully animated sequences are frequently funny. But the frenzied interactivity masks what could have been a perfectly entertaining narrative about friends banding together to save the stolen soul of the tortoise, Little Pencil, from a wicked-looking baddie named, deliciously, Whine. The moody, painterly artwork is stunning, and so is the production work all around. But it ends up an over-spiced stew. The bulk of the animated characters are just marginalia, and a star-collecting game is superfluous. These features sell the story short. The lack of storytelling confidence becomes clear in its pat, disappointing conclusion, which negates much of the experience.
This app gets so much right that it's a shame it ends up offering too much of a good thing. (iPad storybook app. 4-10)Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: OhNoo Studio
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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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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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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