At last, an answer to an age-old mystery.
A boastful young sleuth obliviously aids a group of disguised dinosaurs in this brisk and hilarious tale.
Thaddeus Getsit-Wright, self-proclaimed “[p]rivate eye, mastermind and Rubik’s Cube genius since kindergarten,” sets out to discover what happened to the dinosaurs. He doesn’t notice, though, that he’s being cleverly led by a group of green, scaly creatures (including his personal assistant, Gladys) to a natural history museum, then an only-apparently-deserted dinosaur theme park and finally to a remote site where he finds one of the aforementioned Cubes. Or seemingly so, anyway, as solving it (readers can help by matching a set of drag-and-drop colored tiles) summons a flying rescuer to whisk the dinos away behind the clueless detective’s back. Not only can readers choose either French or English versions (the English one has optional, plummily accented narration), but there are animations aplenty. Swiping, tapping, blowing on or shaking many of the high-spirited cartoon scenes cause bubbles to form and pop, footprints to emerge from “dust,” a vending machine to mouth off, a gallery of nattily attired dinos to stand revealed in their underwear and further rib-tickling special effects. Other enhancements include a functioning compass and, at the top of each screen, a pull-down thumbnail index.
At last, an answer to an age-old mystery. (iPad storybook app. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Audois & Alleuil Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
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
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
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