This ambitious flight to Neverland crashes and burns from the get-go.
The vastly abridged text runs to quick summaries and paraphrased lines like “Take a right after the second star and then go straight until morning!” and accompanies cartoon-style illustrations replete with small figures that fly, gesticulate, pop into view or otherwise move at a touch. Those and a font toggle and vowel highlighter on every page are about the only features that work well, however. The page turns are balky, pausing the audio narration (offered in four languages, plus a self-record option), as are many of the textual features. An "explain to me" tab at the bottom highlights selected words; tapping on them will (sometimes) trigger an automated pronunciation and open explanatory windows that are more or less helpful. Touching "following," for instance, brings up the baffling "going before"; if readers notice that the "opposite" tab at the bottom of that pop up is highlighted, they might deduce that it is an antonym for the word that they wanted explained. Sweeping “fairy dust” across any screen from a pot at the bottom cuts off the narration. In the art, Neverland’s stereotypical Indians are joined on other pages by glimpses of a spear-carrying African and an Arab with a rifle. Sophisticated animations are wasted on an app that is still several major updates short of mediocrity. (iPad storybook app. 5-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Chocolapps
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity.
A collection of parental wishes for a child.
It starts out simply enough: two children run pell-mell across an open field, one holding a high-flying kite with the line “I wish you more ups than downs.” But on subsequent pages, some of the analogous concepts are confusing or ambiguous. The line “I wish you more tippy-toes than deep” accompanies a picture of a boy happily swimming in a pool. His feet are visible, but it's not clear whether he's floating in the deep end or standing in the shallow. Then there's a picture of a boy on a beach, his pockets bulging with driftwood and colorful shells, looking frustrated that his pockets won't hold the rest of his beachcombing treasures, which lie tantalizingly before him on the sand. The line reads: “I wish you more treasures than pockets.” Most children will feel the better wish would be that he had just the right amount of pockets for his treasures. Some of the wordplay, such as “more can than knot” and “more pause than fast-forward,” will tickle older readers with their accompanying, comical illustrations. The beautifully simple pictures are a sweet, kid- and parent-appealing blend of comic-strip style and fine art; the cast of children depicted is commendably multiethnic.
Although the love comes shining through, the text often confuses in straining for patterned simplicity. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: April 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2699-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
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