The story and illustrations are charming, but the app underutilizes the opportunities presented by the format.
Pleasant animal characters use household items to create a marching band in this app based on an Australian picture book of the same name (2010).
A mouse taps a spoon on a mug with a “ting,” and thus begins a musical romp featuring barnyard animals using kitchen utensils to create a marching band. The rhyming, rhythmic text is fun to follow: “A bell, a can, some lids, a cup. / Ting! Tong! Warming up.” The charming watercolor characters line up in front of large swaths of white space. When the makeshift band meets a marching band with real instruments, they all come together in a rousing crescendo. While there are a few animations and interactive moments, there are also missed opportunities and some disconnect between the story and the interactivity. For instance, when the narrator counts the chicks, “one, two, three, four,” the opportunity for kids to count them is taken away. When, according to the text, the rooster nods his head and taps his toe, the only thing that kids can move on the screen are some falling feathers. Single-page navigation is adequate, while other options include the ability to mute the narration and sound effects.
The story and illustrations are charming, but the app underutilizes the opportunities presented by the format. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)Pub Date: May 16, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 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
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cookie-cutter predictability.
After all the daring escapes in the How To Catch… series, will the kids be able to catch Santa?
Oddly, previous installments saw the children trying (and failing) to catch an elf and a reindeer, but both are easily captured in this story. Santa, however, is slippery. Tempted but not fooled by poinsettias, a good book (attached to a slingshot armed with a teddy bear projectile), and, of course, milk and cookies, Santa foils every plan. The hero in a red suit has a job to do. Presents must be placed, and lists must be checked. He has no time for traps and foolery (except if you’re the elf, who falls for every one of them). Luckily, Santa helps the little rascal escape each time. Little is new here—the kids resort to similar snares found in previous works: netting, lures, and technological wonders such as the Santa Catcher 5000. Although the rhythm falters quite a bit (“How did we get out you ask? / It looked like we were done for. / Santa’s magic is very real, / and I cannot reveal more”), fans of the series may not mind. Santa and Christmas just might be enough to overcome the flaws. Santa and the elf are light-skinned, one of the children is brown-skinned, and the other presents as Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Cookie-cutter predictability. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781728274270
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2023
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BOOK REVIEW
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