Forced of animation and perfunctory of plot but well-enough stocked with interactive features and challenges.
Slacker elf classmate in tow, a young student witch takes final exams in this involved set of number, memory and word games.
Receiving lengthy instructions from teacher Miss MacSpider as she goes, the little witch negotiates five tests with readers’ help. These include coloring in a paint-by-matching-numbers portrait and navigating a “concentration”-type maze through an ogre’s stomach. Witch and readers are also quizzed on general knowledge (“What animal roars?”) by a grumpy “genealomagic” tree. Ultimately, she passes by bringing her “cuddly toy” bat to life and then turns a rude classmate into a toad. An optional multivoice audio track in English or French is animated enough to compensate, mostly, for a text that only appears a few lines at a time and for the figures’ twitchy undulations, fixed expressions and unnatural gestures in the cartoon illustrations. Each screen features multiple pans and dissolves, plus any number of incidental tap-activated transformations or sound effects. The tests in the tale (and more in a separate “Surprise” section) are available at three selectable levels of difficulty (the question above is rated “Medium”).
Forced of animation and perfunctory of plot but well-enough stocked with interactive features and challenges. (iPad storybook app. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: SlimCricket
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013
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
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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