It’s a pleasant-enough story, but it’s not quite effective as a way to draw young readers into a museum experience
Two animal friends explore the recently renovated grand Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Digging a tunnel, Mole accidentally discovers a beautiful building and brings his friend Monkey to explore the treasures inside. A chase ensues when a guard spots them and angrily shouts, “The museum is closed. And animals aren’t allowed in here!” As the two friends flee, they bump into an ornate 17th-century Delft vase, are helped by the little angel statue called Amor and otherwise encounter more precious works of art. Options include audio narration in English, Dutch, French and German, a choice of visible or invisible text, and automatic or manual page turns. Interactive features are minimal but suitable for young children. This storybook app works better as a charming story than an introduction to the recently renovated Rijksmuseum, though. While the colophon at the end provides young readers with information about each of the famous works of art, the emphasis is on the animal friends’ adventure. Spee’s illustrations capture the essence of the artwork but are impressions rather than realistic renditions, unlike Clara Button and the Magical Hat Day, by Amy de la Haye, illustrated by Emily Sutton and developed by MAPP Editions (2012), which captures readers’ interest with striking photographs of the artwork in the backmatter.
It’s a pleasant-enough story, but it’s not quite effective as a way to draw young readers into a museum experience . (iPad storybook app. 4-8)Pub Date: April 12, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: The House of Books
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2013
Menacing and most likely to appeal to established fans of its co-creators.
Existing artwork from an artistic giant inspires a fairy-tale reimagination by a master of the horror genre.
In King’s interpretation of a classic Brothers Grimm story, which accompanies set and costume designs that the late Sendak created for a 1997 production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera, siblings Hansel and Gretel survive abandonment in the woods and an evil witch’s plot to gobble them up before finding their “happily ever after” alongside their father. Prose with the reassuring cadence of an old-timey tale, paired with Sendak’s instantly recognizable artwork, will lull readers before capitalizing on these creators’ knack for injecting darkness into seemingly safe spaces. Gaping faces loom in crevices of rocks and trees, and a gloomy palette of muted greens and ocher amplify the story’s foreboding tone, while King never sugarcoats the peach-skinned children’s peril. Branches with “clutching fingers” hide “the awful enchanted house” of a “child-stealing witch,” all portrayed in an eclectic mix of spot and full-bleed images. Featuring insults that might strike some as harsh (“idiot,” “fool”), the lengthy, dense text may try young readers’ patience, and the often overwhelmingly ominous mood feels more pitched to adults—particularly those familiar with King and Sendak—but an introduction acknowledges grandparents as a likely audience, and nostalgia may prompt leniency over an occasional disconnect between words and art.
Menacing and most likely to appeal to established fans of its co-creators. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780062644695
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
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
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