Doubting Dasha goes where everyone else fears to tread because she doubts there are monsters in the forest stealing her town’s grain.
Somebody is raiding the granary. Rumor has it that the scary ones who live deep in the swampy parts of the forest are the culprits, but that sounds like a stretch to Dasha, who specializes in doubting. So into the forest she marches, taking various routes and meeting with multiple monsters, from ugly, old Baba Yaga and a troll with a serious case of foot fungus to a werewolf with fleas and a zombie who is losing body parts right and left. Dasha defeats them all with kindness, and readers get to join her in curing the monsters’ many ills. The games are not mentally challenging, but a couple require a sure sense of screen touch, especially in ridding the werewolf of fleas and keeping the zombie’s eyeballs from dropping out of his head. The monsters’ dialogue is set in verse, which treads the line between cute and clownish: “We decided to come back / And help you with your human pack. / If you don’t mind that I’m so farty / We decided to throw a party!” A mildly annoying, noodling bit of music accompanies Dasha on her quest, but the artwork is an eyeful, full of the velvety colors of night. And, should readers persevere, they will learn the identity of the dirty rat making off with the grain. The level of engagement and the story’s braided scenarios are taxing enough to keep younger users fully attentive. (iPad storybook app. 5-8)
Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Tatyana Mironova
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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