Initially miffed at having his nap disturbed by a brisk, cheery yellow bird, Rocket soon falls under her spell. She reads...
A digital version of a 2010 tree-book about a small dog set on the road to reading by a clever avian educator.
Initially miffed at having his nap disturbed by a brisk, cheery yellow bird, Rocket soon falls under her spell. She reads stories and then shows him how to put letters of the “wondrous, mighty, gorgeous alphabet” together into simple words. After she flies away in the fall, he keeps up his skills by tracing letters in the snow and sounding out words (“C-O-L-D”; “M-E-L-T”) until Spring brings both “M-U-D” (smearable with a fingertip over the whole screen) and a joyful reunion. Rocket’s extreme cuteness in the bright, simple illustrations is underscored by touch-activated tail wags and fetching cocks of the head, along with other small animations. The (optional) narrator, actor Hope Davis, reads in a deliberate, even-toned way, and as she does, each word of the text is highlighted—and whether or not the “Read to Me” track is selected, she pronounces any word or letter on the screen that is tapped. Along with the story itself, the app includes an author’s bio with a slide show and two literacy-building games for newly fledged readers. Some glitches need working out: The app is slow to load, continues to run when the tablet is locked and cannot be paged back from the final credits. Still, the added and interactive features are enhancements rather than distractions.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Random House Digital
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)
Wallace and Elkerton continue their series about catching elusive mythical creatures (How to Catch a Leprechaun, 2016, etc.) with this Christmas story about an elf who must avoid traps constructed by children before Santa’s annual visit.
The unnamed elf narrator is the sole helper traveling with Santa on his delivery rounds on Christmas Eve, with each house featuring a different type of trap for elves. The spunky elf avoids a mechanical “elf snatcher,” hidden in a plate of cookies, as well as simple traps made of tinsel, double-sided tape, and a cardboard box concealing a mean-looking cat. Another trap looks like a bomb hidden in a box of candy, and a complicated trap in a maze has an evil cowboy clown with a branding iron, leading to the elf’s cry, “Hey, you zapped my tushy!” The bomb trap and the branding iron seem to push the envelope of child-made inventions. The final trap is located in a family grocery store that’s booby-trapped with a “Dinner Cannon” shooting out food, including a final pizza that the elf and Santa share. The singsong, rhyming text has a forced cheeriness, full of golly-jolly-holly Christmas spirit and too many exclamation marks, as well as rhyming word pairs that miss the mark. (No, little elf-boy, “smarter” and “harder” do not rhyme.) Bold, busy illustrations in a cartoon style have a cheeky appeal with a focus on the freckle-faced white elf with auburn curls and a costume with a retro vibe. (Santa is also white.)
A forgettable effort that fails to capture any of the magical charm of Santa’s story. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4631-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
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BOOK REVIEW
Lighthearted and un-scary enough for bedtime.
Talk show host Fallon and illustrator Deas follow up 5 More Sleeps ’Til Christmas (2020) with a story of a youngster preparing for Halloween.
“It’s FIVE more sleeps ’til Halloween, / that spooky time of year / where all the ghosts are wide awake / as nighttime’s drawing near.” A calendar page with a large numeral 5 curls before a bright orange pumpkin. An orange-haired, light-skinned moppet wearing an enormous pair of blue glasses is hunkered down in bed with Gary the dog, whose vibrant blue coloring matches the bedspread. Occasionally accompanied by a sibling, the young narrator counts down day by day, describing seasonal activities: picking out a costume, navigating a corn maze, watching scary movies, taking part in a parade, going on a hayride, and trick-or-treating. The rhyming verses are sometimes a bit rocky but always fun. The text is periodically punctuated by the word boo, which appears in large, cartoonlike lettering; that, along with the calendar countdown motif, adds a pleasant repetition. Though the child confides feelings of trepidation (“What if bats fly in my room? / I think I’ll close my window now”), descriptions of scary moments are always offset by brightly colored, exuberant artwork. Humor abounds: Gary looks both hilarious and sweet dressed in a ghost costume that matches the narrator’s. The final page neatly closes the circle as the child goes from anticipating the holiday to participating in it and back again.
Lighthearted and un-scary enough for bedtime. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9781250857798
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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