A classic story in an appealing format.
This app version of the short story culled from the collection in Dubliners explores the inner journey from childhood to adulthood. With beautiful prose and psychological depth, this is quintessential Joyce, in which coming of age is set squarely on the road to disillusionment.
The author's carefully nuanced descriptions of a dreary Dublin neighborhood are illustrated with Töttös’ gorgeous graphics, rendered in sepia tones and in a style reminiscent of the Edwardian era, in which Dubliners was first published. Initially illuminated through the lens of a child's imagination, the neighborhood gradually loses its luster as the young narrator's story unfolds. Frustrated at every turn by adults and impatient to leave childhood behind, his journey into adulthood is embodied in his attempt to travel on the train to the Araby bazaar and purchase a gift for the idealized object of his intense first crush. Available in six languages (and bracketed by an original music loop brief enough to be enjoyable), the text is accompanied by subtle sound effects—of village life, creaky floors, music at the titular bazaar—and occasional animations. The minute hand travels inexorably around a clock face as the boy waits; two two-shilling pieces clink gently when his uncle finally gives him train fare. This app is not remarkable for its interactive features, which are minimal, but for its respect for the source material.
A classic story in an appealing format. (iPad storybook app. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Crocobee
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
Opening episodes of a comic-book series created by an American teacher in Japan take a leap into chapter-book format, with only partial success. Resembling—in occasional illustrations—a button-eyed, juvenile Olive Oyl, Akiko, 10, is persuaded by a pair of aliens named Bip and Bop to climb out her high-rise bedroom’s window for a trip to M&M-shaped Planet Smoo, where Prince Fropstoppit has been kidnapped by widely feared villainness Alia Rellaport. Along with an assortment of contentious sidekicks, including brainy Mr. Beeba, Akiko battles Sky Pirates and video-game-style monsters in prolonged scenes of cartoony violence, displaying resilience, courage, and leadership ability, but not getting very far in her rescue attempt; in fact, the story cuts off so abruptly, with so little of the quest completed, and at a lull in the action to boot, that readers expecting a self-contained (forget complete) story are likely to feel cheated. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2000
ISBN: 0-385-32724-2
Page Count: 162
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
Ghanaian teenager Gloria Bampo has hit a rough patch. She failed most of her school exams, her long-unemployed father has lost himself to religion and her mother is ravaged by a mysterious sickness. Her one consolation, her older sister Effie, has discovered boys and all but disappeared. Gloria is offered a job in a distant city with Christine, a doctor who needs househelp. Her father is quick to assent, with one condition: In lieu of payment, Christine must take responsibility for Gloria's future and adopt her as a sister. Gloria adjusts easily, studies hard and explores her newfound freedom. But when the temptations of her new life—brand-name clothes and handsome doctors—prove hard to resist, a misunderstanding cuts a rift between Gloria and Christine. Each must confront class stereotypes and re-examine the meaning of family. Badoe's sharp and engaging prose unfolds the story with spryness, deftly navigating readers through heady social issues. But she wastes readers' goodwill at the end with a conclusion both haphazard and overly moralistic, jarringly out of place in this otherwise thoughtful and well-excuted novel. (Ghanaian glossary) (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-88899-996-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Groundwood
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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