One of many tales featuring an overabundance of latkes, but properly festive (in the end, at least) and with digital...
The first night of Hanukkah turns out to be anything but restful for a poor family, thanks to an overenthusiastic magic potato.
The single spud that a little man hands Dad as he’s coming home from the pencil factory doesn’t seem like much to the four Smalls. “Maybe next time he could also spare an onion,” says Mom. But the one latke she makes turns into five in the pan—and later that night, the single leftover reproduces so exuberantly that the house fills up, pushing the two children out the window and stranding them high atop a teetering tower of taters. The neighbors and Emergency Services personnel are helpless, until the little man reappears to suggest that everyone should just chow down. Along with simple cartoon illustrations that pulse or toggle between two scenes with a tap and the occasional tilt-activated animation, the app offers a self-record option to go with the silent mode or a warm audio narration. Icons lead to four easy side games, from a spinnable dreidel to candles and a menorah with the blessings presented both in English and also spoken or sung Hebrew.
One of many tales featuring an overabundance of latkes, but properly festive (in the end, at least) and with digital enhancements that give this edition a leg up over the forgettable print version (2011). (iPad storybook app. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Behrman House Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2011
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
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
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