“Being a fart is so cool!” Farton concludes. Children will not be able to restrain their…applause.
Expelled from Happy Bottom by a stomach cramp, an intrepid young fart explores the world—and beyond—in this breezy import.
As an active member of the Young Explorers Club, Farton sees in his expulsion a dream come true. His adventures range from saving a group of flowers by flying up the nose of a “parfumeur” to (briefly) joining a rock band of malign pollution clouds. After this, the small green puff meets Breeze, a girl fart, and together they float off to nonstop party time in the gassy rings of Saturn. Though the verbose text and simply drawn cartoon illustrations have a low-rent look, the design and interactive effects are unusually artful. Along with a slide-in menu on every screen with a strip index, separate volume adjustments for the sound effects and the rumptious background music, and an English/Spanish toggle, taps on many figures result in a truly impressive array of juicy blats and squelches. There are also squashable bugs, a customizable jam session, clouds that can be “blown” away and other reader-controlled features. Parents unsure of the educational value of this olfactory odyssey will doubtless be appeased by the scholarly introductory doctor’s note.
“Being a fart is so cool!” Farton concludes. Children will not be able to restrain their…applause. (Requires iPad 2 and above.) (iPad storybook app. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Makupipe
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
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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