High production values brighten this feature-rich offspring of one of Heaney’s last works and a BBC miniseries.
Fifteenth-century versions of five fables get lavish makeovers in this star- and feature-studded app.
Three of the tales are usually ascribed to Aesop; the two others, which feature a clever fox and a foolish wolf, are drawn from other sources. Henryson considerably expanded his episodes’ pithy progenitors: “The Lion and the Mouse,” for instance, here runs to 36 verses of seven lines each plus seven more verses of “Moralitas,” opening with an introductory dream in which the writer begs a reluctant Aesop for “…’ane prettie fabill / Concludand with ane gude moralitie.” Menu options at the bottom of each screen allow readers to view the tales in the author’s original thick but penetrable Middle Scots verse or in Heaney’s modern translation, as well as side by side or in 12- to 14-minute animated renditions with ebullient readings (Heaney’s by actor Billy Connolly) of either alternative. A slide-in sidebar offers scholarly glosses, and in additional video clips, Heaney, Connolly and others deliver introductory synopses and background commentary. Though this collection is not specifically aimed at younger audiences, occasional lyrical or poignant passages—and even flashes of wit—lighten the sententious moralizing. Furthermore, at least in the animated versions, the violence (songbirds trapped and killed in “The Preaching of the Swallow,” the wolf beaten bloody in “The Fox, The Wolf and the Carter”) is either not shown or toned down.
High production values brighten this feature-rich offspring of one of Heaney’s last works and a BBC miniseries. (Requires iOS 7.0 and above.) (introduction, bibliography) (iPad folklore app. 10-13, adult)Pub Date: May 22, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: TouchPress
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel.
Sure signs that the creative wells are running dry at last, the Captain’s ninth, overstuffed outing both recycles a villain (see Book 4) and offers trendy anti-bullying wish fulfillment.
Not that there aren’t pranks and envelope-pushing quips aplenty. To start, in an alternate ending to the previous episode, Principal Krupp ends up in prison (“…a lot like being a student at Jerome Horwitz Elementary School, except that the prison had better funding”). There, he witnesses fellow inmate Tippy Tinkletrousers (aka Professor Poopypants) escape in a giant Robo-Suit (later reduced to time-traveling trousers). The villain sets off after George and Harold, who are in juvie (“not much different from our old school…except that they have library books here.”). Cut to five years previous, in a prequel to the whole series. George and Harold link up in kindergarten to reduce a quartet of vicious bullies to giggling insanity with a relentless series of pranks involving shaving cream, spiders, effeminate spoof text messages and friendship bracelets. Pilkey tucks both topical jokes and bathroom humor into the cartoon art, and ups the narrative’s lexical ante with terms like “pharmaceuticals” and “theatrical flair.” Unfortunately, the bullies’ sad fates force Krupp to resign, so he’s not around to save the Earth from being destroyed later on by Talking Toilets and other invaders…
Is this the end? Well, no…the series will stagger on through at least one more scheduled sequel. (Fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-17534-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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