While the clever illustrations might draw children to the app, the overall package does not deliver a wholesome offering.
Mixing together satire, visual recipes and quirky illustrations, this app takes a fresh approach; unfortunately, the results seem a bit half-baked.
A saucy interview with The Carrot starts off this unconventional app. “My ideal role is in Carrot Soup but I am open to suggestions. Vegetable Soup was as a result of solid cooperation with Potato, Parsley, Celery and Brussels Sprout.” A short chapter on vitamins follows, but the interactive features fail to add to readers’ knowledge; readers simply touch the apple, then an apple core and finally a smiling girl to show that eating fruit makes for happy, healthy kids, for instance. The illustrations complement the satirical tone with offbeat animated characters. A bag of flour waves—“Hey, hey”—and an egg gallantly tips its hat. But the stylish illustrations don’t make up for the overall lack of substance. Recipes are not spelled out clearly for young readers to follow. Nutritional facts are obscured by the focus on humorous caricatures. Interactive features are uneven and do not further real understanding of the content. Awkward sentences, possibly due to poor translation, contribute further problems.
While the clever illustrations might draw children to the app, the overall package does not deliver a wholesome offering. (iPad informational app. 5-10)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: THE STORY
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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
Only for dedicated fans of the series.
When a kid gets the part of the ninja master in the school play, it finally seems to be the right time to tackle the closet monster.
“I spot my monster right away. / He’s practicing his ROAR. / He almost scares me half to death, / but I won’t be scared anymore!” The monster is a large, fluffy poison-green beast with blue hands and feet and face and a fluffy blue-and-green–striped tail. The kid employs a “bag of tricks” to try to catch the monster: in it are a giant wind-up shark, two cans of silly string, and an elaborate cage-and-robot trap. This last works, but with an unexpected result: the monster looks sad. Turns out he was only scaring the boy to wake him up so they could be friends. The monster greets the boy in the usual monster way: he “rips a massive FART!!” that smells like strawberries and lime, and then they go to the monster’s house to meet his parents and play. The final two spreads show the duo getting ready for bed, which is a rather anticlimactic end to what has otherwise been a rambunctious tale. Elkerton’s bright illustrations have a TV-cartoon aesthetic, and his playful beast is never scary. The narrator is depicted with black eyes and hair and pale skin. Wallace’s limping verses are uninspired at best, and the scansion and meter are frequently off.
Only for dedicated fans of the series. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4894-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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