A short set of visual puzzles, closer in overall complexity to Richard Scarry than Where’s Waldo.
A pioneer of the “busy, busy crowd scene” style of illustration slips into the digital domain with tablet versions of several classic titles—including this low-key but involving example.
Viewers can zoom in and pan around seven screens, each an angled aerial view of several dozen active people in an airport, zoo, swimming pool, city intersection or other town setting. There is no animation, but along with quiet crowd and traffic background noises, many figures will respond to taps with exclamations, giggles or other sounds. These are signaled, strangely, by a flurry of visible musical notes, though except for a busker in one scene, there is no music. As an ongoing test of visual memory, children can collect stars by using a feature that opens a set of albums on each screen with “snapshots” of fine details in the larger scenes to spot and capture with a roving “camera.” Signs on shops and elsewhere change according to which of the five European languages is selected at the beginning, but in a translator’s bobble, one scene is titled “On the Market” in English. Less fixable are the antique cassette-tape players, on-shoulder video cameras and other period details in the art. Still, Mitgutsch’s cartoon figures are clear and sharply focused at any magnification and their jobs or activities easy to follow.
A short set of visual puzzles, closer in overall complexity to Richard Scarry than Where’s Waldo. (iPad seek-and-find app. 3-5)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Ravensburger Digital
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nice but not requisite purchase.
A retelling of the classic fairy tale in board-book format and with a Mexican setting.
Though simplified for a younger audience, the text still relates the well-known tale: mean-spirited stepmother, spoiled stepsisters, overworked Cinderella, fairy godmother, glass slipper, charming prince, and, of course, happily-ever-after. What gives this book its flavor is the artwork. Within its Mexican setting, the characters are olive-skinned and dark-haired. Cultural references abound, as when a messenger comes carrying a banner announcing a “FIESTA” in beautiful papel picado. Cinderella is the picture of beauty, with her hair up in ribbons and flowers and her typically Mexican many-layered white dress. The companion volume, Snow White, set in Japan and illustrated by Misa Saburi, follows the same format. The simplified text tells the story of the beautiful princess sent to the forest by her wicked stepmother to be “done away with,” the dwarves that take her in, and, eventually, the happily-ever-after ending. Here too, what gives the book its flavor is the artwork. The characters wear traditional clothing, and the dwarves’ house has the requisite shoji screens, tatami mats and cherry blossoms in the garden. The puzzling question is, why the board-book presentation? Though the text is simplified, it’s still beyond the board-book audience, and the illustrations deserve full-size books.
A nice but not requisite purchase. (Board book/fairy tale. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-7915-8
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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