A “hands-on” tale with an appealing protagonist whose road to triumph is a realistically rocky one.
Repeated failures set up a young artist/tinkerer for success in a tale driven by its agenda but laden with extras.
Restless, inattentive and probably a sufferer of ADHD or of a spectrum disorder, Axel continually annoys his third-grade classmates and teacher. A typical mishap sends him and the other students sprawling over their carefully constructed art projects. Recollection of his lengthy struggles at home to create a kinetic sculpture à la Alexander Calder inspires him to recast the broken materials and paint-spattered room into one big collective artwork that wows everyone. The figures in Armiño’s cartoon scenes move and gesture clumsily, but there’s some compensation in the interactions. The wide range of touch-, tilt- and shake-activated animations is capped by a camera at the end that lets viewers take selfies. Furthermore, the multivoiced audio track can be switched on or off, a thumbnail strip allows easy navigation, and tapping the visible lines magnifies the scrolling lines of text. Moreover, both the story and three appended projects feature video clips showing kinetic art in action, the author profiles Calder and two other artists in a side feature, and an icon promises a game in a future update.
A “hands-on” tale with an appealing protagonist whose road to triumph is a realistically rocky one. (glossary) (iPad storybook app. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Laura Allison Pomenta Badolato
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low.
Recasting Dog Man and his feline ward, Li’l Petey, as costumed superheroes, Pilkey looks East of Eden in this follow-up to Tale of Two Kitties (2017).
The Steinbeck novel’s Cain/Abel motif gets some play here, as Petey, “world’s evilest cat” and cloned Li’l Petey’s original, tries assiduously to tempt his angelic counterpart over to the dark side only to be met, ultimately at least, by Li’l Petey’s “Thou mayest.” (There are also occasional direct quotes from the novel.) But inner struggles between good and evil assume distinctly subordinate roles to riotous outer ones, as Petey repurposes robots built for a movie about the exploits of Dog Man—“the thinking man’s Rin Tin Tin”—while leading a general rush to the studio’s costume department for appropriate good guy/bad guy outfits in preparation for the climactic battle. During said battle and along the way Pilkey tucks in multiple Flip-O-Rama inserts as well as general gags. He lists no fewer than nine ways to ask “who cut the cheese?” and includes both punny chapter titles (“The Bark Knight Rises”) and nods to Hamiltonand Mary Poppins. The cartoon art, neatly and brightly colored by Garibaldi, is both as easy to read as the snappy dialogue and properly endowed with outsized sound effects, figures displaying a range of skin colors, and glimpses of underwear (even on robots).
More trampling in the vineyards of the Literary Classics section, with results that will tickle fancies high and low. (drawing instructions) (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-545-93518-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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