A bland retelling, well stocked with pedagogical features.
A sweet version of the tale, with Disney-style cartoon illustrations and a carriage full of literacy-building tools.
With help from her matronly “godmother, who was a fairy,” Cinderella meets and weds the Prince, forgiving her stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia (her stepmother vanishes after an early cameo) and going on to live at court “happily, with the Prince and their many children.” The text and an optional audio narration that comes with both highlighted words and auto-advance can be switched between French and English on any page. A swinging cord visible on every page (even the credits) pulls down a menu of further options—pronouncing individual words at a touch, displaying for selected words either a brief definition or a small image, even highlighting all the vowels. The illustrations are not touch sensitive, but they move or transform smoothly. In fact, touching the screen isn’t a good idea, as it seems to derail the app, causing all sound to cease until the “play” button is tapped; multiple touches create a sort of pantomime as the characters continue to move silently, cause the menu bar to flicker, set off a page turn and sometimes disassociate the text from the art.
A bland retelling, well stocked with pedagogical features. (iPad storybook/educational app. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Chocolapps
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The wriggly narrator of Diary of a Worm (2003) puts in occasional appearances, but it’s his arachnid buddy who takes center stage here, with terse, tongue-in-cheek comments on his likes (his close friend Fly, Charlotte’s Web), his dislikes (vacuums, people with big feet), nervous encounters with a huge Daddy Longlegs, his extended family—which includes a Grandpa more than willing to share hard-won wisdom (The secret to a long, happy life: “Never fall asleep in a shoe.”)—and mishaps both at spider school and on the human playground. Bliss endows his garden-dwellers with faces and the odd hat or other accessory, and creates cozy webs or burrows colorfully decorated with corks, scraps, plastic toys and other human detritus. Spider closes with the notion that we could all get along, “just like me and Fly,” if we but got to know one another. Once again, brilliantly hilarious. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-06-000153-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Joanna Cotler/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
Rylant (Henry and Mudge and the Sneaky Crackers, 1998, etc.) slips into a sentimental mode for this latest outing of the boy and his dog, as she sends Mudge and Henry and his parents off on a camping trip. Each character is attended to, each personality sketched in a few brief words: Henry's mother is the camping veteran with outdoor savvy; Henry's father doesn't know a tent stake from a marshmallow fork, but he's got a guitar for campfire entertainment; and the principals are their usual ready-for-fun selves. There are sappy moments, e.g., after an evening of star- gazing, Rylant sends the family off to bed with: ``Everyone slept safe and sound and there were no bears, no scares. Just the clean smell of trees . . . and wonderful green dreams.'' With its nice tempo, the story is as toasty as its campfire and swaddled in Stevenson's trusty artwork. (Fiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: April 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-689-81175-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1998
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