Though less full-featured than an app, this minimalist interactive story nonetheless holds its own.
A rainy day is rendered in rhythmic wordplay and animated crayon sketches in this interactive iBook.
Falling somewhere between a full-blown iPad app and a standard iBooks-format e-book, this story of children playing in rain and mud feels like a playful experiment. As an introductory page explains, this translation to English “includes onomatopoeia from the original Japanese book.” Younger readers unfamiliar with Japanese may have trouble with these words at first, but iBooks’ “Start Reading” option toggles narration that breezes through bits such as, “Becha-becha, bicha-bicha, guchan-guchan. Gobo-gobo, zaba-zaba, ba-shan ba-shan.” Much of it is repetitive enough to pick up quickly, and hearing it aloud helps immeasurably. Animations throughout are simple and a little rough, but the use of color to highlight characters on black-and-white pages and the ambient sound of rain falling are more than effective enough to convey a mood of joyful outdoor fun. The splashing, romping, raincoat-clad children are skillfully suggested with just a few lines and energetic scribbles; they are clearly having the time of their young lives. The mix of English and Japanese feels just right, and the compositions are simple enough to make the scenes clear. Raincoats and umbrellas can be great fun, and the tongue-twisting beats of the words in this enhanced book are, too.
Though less full-featured than an app, this minimalist interactive story nonetheless holds its own. (Requires iPad 2 and above.) (Enhanced e–picture book. 2-6)Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Kumon Publishing North America
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2014
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property.
Since a reformed Grinch is hardly any fun, this follow-up Grinches him up once more.
Those seeking more of the same, prepare to receive precisely that. Christmas is coming (again!), and the Grinch can hardly wait. He’s been patient all year, and now he can finally show the Whos down in Who-ville how much he’s changed. When the Grinch learns of a tree-decorating contest, he figures that if he wins, it’ll prove he truly has the Christmas spirit. He throws himself into the task, but when it comes time to judge the trees, the Grinch is horrified to discover that he’s received only the second-place trophy. Can Cindy-Lou Who find the words to save the day? Replicating many of the original beats and wordplay of the original, this tale feels like less a sequel and more like a vaguely rewritten variation. Meanwhile, Ruiz’s art seeks to bridge the gap between the animated Chuck Jones version of the Grinch and the one depicted in the original book. This thankless task results in a strange uncanny valley between Seuss and Jones but does allow the artist a chance to colorize everything and lend some racial diversity to the Who population (Cindy-Lou is light-skinned). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how many mediocre sequels you can squeeze out of Seussian property. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780593563168
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
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