A faithful—but not slavishly so—adaptation worthy of the Big Apple.
Even more ambitious than its predecessor, Alice for the iPad, a mash-up that could have gone terribly wrong finds its own magical charm.
Following in the finger-steps of what was considered one of the first great children's story apps for the iPad, Atomic Antelope's next outing could have been a straightforward adaptation of Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. Instead the development studio has grafted the book's scenes neatly onto New York City. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are taxi drivers, the Red Queen is a colorful Statue of Liberty and the English countryside is replaced by an Empire State Building Observation Deck view of the city. If it sounds tacky (as the blaring soundtrack and blinking neon signage of the cover page suggest it to be), the careful mix of Carroll's original text—with only minor updates to adjust the setting—and the stunning adaptations of Sir John Tenniel's well-known illustrations will soon reassure readers. As with the previous app, the 26 animated, interactive pages are the show-stoppers; characters and objects wobble, sway or get tossed around based on touch. Incidental music and sound effects are evocative (the "Coney Island" page, for instance, is impressively immersive). Some of the marriage of text to setting seems almost too good to be true ("I declare it's marked out just like a large chessboard!" Alice says of New York City's grid), but purists will appreciate how much of Carroll's prose and poems are left intact.
A faithful—but not slavishly so—adaptation worthy of the Big Apple. (iPad storybook app. 5 & up)Pub Date: March 7, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Atomic Antelope
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2011
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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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