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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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