For some readers, the shortcomings won't matter. Lear's writing is still a delight, and whatever vehicle it arrives in...
A mismatch of adaptation style to source, this cartoon version of Lear's nonsense poem about lost love on a beach fails to live up to the wildly inventive wordplay of the text.
In the story, which was first published in 1877, the Yonghy-Bonghy Bò is a man living on the Coast of Coromandel in love with the Lady Jingly Jones. He asks her to be his wife in this exquisite bit of rhythmic writing: " 'I am tired of living singly, / On this coast so wild and shingly, / I'm a-weary of my life: / If you'll come and be my wife, / Quite serene would be my life!' / Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò, / Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò." With its made-up words, silly imagery ("Where the early pumpkins blow") and delicious repetition, the text holds up remarkably well, and its melancholy ending is unexpected and poignant. Unfortunately, it's been paired with generic artwork, the kind where cutesy animated animals seem drawn only to scuttle around and make noises when touched. It turns out to be a disappointingly literal take on Lear's material. At least the design is consistent with its outdoor theme, framing the text and illustrations with vines and leaves. The app offers a brief biography of Lear, a set of questions and discussion topics for parents reading with their kids, and easy navigation.
For some readers, the shortcomings won't matter. Lear's writing is still a delight, and whatever vehicle it arrives in doesn't diminish the strength of it much at all. (iPad storybook app. 2-10)Pub Date: July 15, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Corky Portwine
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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