Fun, if dark at times. (iPad storybook app. 5-9)
An interactive and fantastical introduction to hand-shadows combines with a lesson on obesity.
Making hand-shadows and eating black licorice wheels are Reginald’s favorite activities, earning him the nickname Reginald-Fat Shadow. When his voracious appetite causes Reginald to grow plump, his shadow decides to cut itself away from him. Distraught, Reginald finds himself on a quest to the Land of Lost Shadows. In this mysterious land, Reginald is confronted with the ghastly and skeletal Lady Dark, who controls the fates of shadows. Determined to retrieve his shadow, Reginald outsmarts the wraith by sacrificing his favorite sweet, which results in both a reunion with his shadow and dramatic weight loss. Although a fairly text-heavy app, when narrated, it flows well, and despite being a translation, there are only a few noticeable bumps in word choices. The majority of pages provide interactivity through tapping or tilting to expose silly, hidden surprises within the watercolor illustrations. Goofy sound effects are also sprinkled throughout. Additionally, several pages feature light switches, which turn off a scene’s lights and expose Reginald’s shadow figures. The app’s main menu includes additional jigsaw puzzle activities and a basic illustrated guide to making one’s own shadow figures.
Fun, if dark at times. (iPad storybook app. 5-9)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Scarpetta & Lauria Productions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2012
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
SEEN & HEARD
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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