Too bad the story doesn’t match the app’s technical competence. Luckily, there are enough things to play with inside to make...
This overly cute mystery is admirable without being memorable.
Mother Squirrel, a Disney-worthy critter who wears a giant pink kerchief, loses her acorns to a burglar. Her quest to retrieve them will take her through many parts of the forest before she returns home to discover an unexpected surprise put together by her animal friends. (Spoiler: It’s a surprise party.) Kids may be enchanted by the lush artwork, in which every creature has beautiful, cuddly fur or perfectly pretty feathers. But for adults reading with them, Mother Squirrel's extended hunt soon becomes repetitious, even interminable. Much more interesting than the saccharine story is a set of story challenges, such as an exercise to divide up treats on a scale so both sides are equal in weight or a picture that's revealed by connecting letters of the alphabet. In its presentation and technical bona fides, the app soars. It has easy-to-navigate menus and doesn't trap readers on a page with an activity without allowing some sort of escape hatch to advance the story. A separate page of study activities (Numbers, Shapes, Grouping, etc.) is nicely done and varied enough to stay interesting even if each activity is limited to only a handful of problems.
Too bad the story doesn’t match the app’s technical competence. Luckily, there are enough things to play with inside to make it worth a look anyway. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: WiseKids Corporation
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2013
A wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable.
You think you know shapes? Animals? Blend them together, and you might see them both a little differently!
What a mischievous twist on a concept book! With wordplay and a few groan-inducing puns, Neal creates connections among animals and shapes that are both unexpected and so seemingly obvious that readers might wonder why they didn’t see them all along. Of course, a “lazy turtle” meeting an oval would create the side-splitting combo of a “SLOW-VAL.” A dramatic page turn transforms a deeply saturated, clean-lined green oval by superimposing a head and turtle shell atop, with watery blue ripples completing the illusion. Minimal backgrounds and sketchy, impressionistic detailing keep the focus right on the zany animals. Beginning with simple shapes, the geometric forms become more complicated as the book advances, taking readers from a “soaring bird” that meets a triangle to become a “FLY-ANGLE” to a “sleepy lion” nonagon “YAWN-AGON.” Its companion text, Animal Colors, delves into color theory, this time creating entirely hybrid animals, such as the “GREEN WHION” with maned head and whale’s tail made from a “blue whale and a yellow lion.” It’s a compelling way to visualize color mixing, and like Animal Shapes, it’s got verve. Who doesn’t want to shout out that a yellow kangaroo/green moose blend is a “CHARTREUSE KANGAMOOSE”?
Innovative and thoroughly enjoyable. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4998-0534-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little Bee Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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