A review of "Miss Rosie Red - Let Me See...What Will I Be?" app written and illustrated by Trisha Deery and produced by Dog Ears

Hi People in the Ether,

   Miss Rosie Red is a charming character whose first picture book adventure "Let Me See...What Will I Be?" makes a fun and friendly app.

   It's a simple, warm, sweet story - Rosie's been invited to her friend's birthday party and decides she needs to dress up as something impressive. The scouring of dress-up boxes and wardrobes is doomed as there's an imagined problem with each costume - astronaut, fairy and dinosaur. After many other changes, at last, our cheery heroine realises the best course of action. She'll be herself. And when she arrives at the picnic she discovers her friends are being themselves, too.

   Throughout, Rosie talks to Cooper the cat in a very believable manner. The sense of her wondering, daydreaming, play acting is really innocent and lovely. And there's a great range of words in the narration. The repetition of "Let me see...what will I be?" and "Oh, no, that would never do" ensure this will be an engaging storytime read.  

   Deery's artwork is scrumptious, soft, in a warm colour palette. There are few backgrounds other than colour washes until the climax. Rosie is gorgeous, her russet hair, lovely freckles, stripey tights, infectious smile, and emphatic frown are all adorably drawn. Rosie's little brother, Baby, is chubby and cute. Cooper is forever prowling and jumping. And I especially loved Rosie's Mum's red stilettos, they tell us something of her character though we never see her face. All Rosie's friends, Darcy, Gracie, Penny are distinct individuals.

   The interactivity of the app is really well pitched. There are three reading options; read to me, read myself, autoplay. And the speed of the latter option run is perfect. There's also just the right amount of screens that involve extra touch changes to the scenes and they're really effective. There are lovely sound effects throughout and cheerful uptempo guitar playing occasionally in the background that's far intrusive. And Rosie's song is adorable. 

    I think the voice talents on this app are the cherries on a lovely cake. Rosie is voiced by a three-year old and this lends an authenticity that's full of excitement and wonder. Mum's voice is loving and very engaged with Rosie, while the narrator is always cosy and interested in the events onscreen. I'll admit I'm predisposed to love these particular accents from my neck of the woods, but I also think it's really refreshing to hear more regional, and non-celebrity, voices in apps. Miss Rosie Red is a wonderful character for pre-schoolers - she's set to star in more books and apps, and there's even a television series in the works.

   Thanks for reading,
      LJ

    

A review of "Again!" by Emily Gravett

Hi Folks in the Smoke,

   The most recent offering from the very talented Emily Gravett is wry, warm and fun.

   "Again!" features a fierce little dragon with an appetite for his favourite bedtime story. The blurb introduces him as Cedric, and that is also the name of the dragon in the tale his weary mum reads to him. The story book Cedric is huge and red and terrorises his neighbours, whereas our Cedric is tiny, green and looks quite innocent; a neat contrast.

   But our Cedric is also a little stroppy and repeatedly demands that his mum read the story again and again. The bedtime tale changes each time, becoming shorter, as Cedric's mum gets wearier. Eventually, she drifts off mid-reading and Cedric loses the plot. He screams and stomps and turns from innocent green to furious red. First he pouts and snorts out smoke but flames soon follow and he then scorches his story book, and charmingly ours as well.

   Gravett's canny text and its presentation make this book - there is one sentence of scene-setting, then all of the story book reading and Cedric's mum's dialogue is captured on the inset illustrated book, while Cedric's only speech is "again", though he does say it 15 times in various tones and at increasing volumes as reflected by different font sizes.

    As ever, the artwork is textured, simple and captivating. The stark white backgrounds allow us to focus on the beautiful inset story book and on our scaly, green protagonists. I love how Cedric boils from his peaceful green to a raging red. The loveliest touch is a spread that seems to look out from inside the favoured story book, its characters look non-too-impressed with the destruction to their home wrought by our grumpy little dragon. 

   This charming tale of tired storyteller and moody toddler might aid those struggling with their own fierce little creatures at bedtime.

    Thanks for reading,
        LJ

Apologies

Hey People in the Ether,
 
   This is a quick post to apologise profusely for such a long silence. A family wedding and all it's attendant business had to take priority over blogging for a couple of months. Normal service will be restored soon.

    Thanks,
         LJ

Some app reviews

Hi Folks in the Smoke,

   I'm a huge fan of Nosy Crow's fairytale apps - Cinderella and The Three Little Pigs are gorgeous, detailed and fun, packed with lots to explore and great non-linear story-crafting. I played with some of their other offerings over the holiday and thought I'd round them up in this post.

"Bizzy Bear", ideal for pre-schoolers

 Bizzy Bear is the hero of a series of lovely board books and apps for pre-schoolers. He's a loveable and inquisitive character who explores a new environment, completes tasks and makes friends. In "Bizzy Bear On the Farm" and "Bizzy Bear Builds A House", you must help him by swiping objects, opening doors and operating machinery.

                        

   There are eggs to collect, tractors to drive, horses to exercise, bricks to deliver, sand to shovel and cranes to operate. Benji Davis' art is cute, warm and fun and the soundtrack, highlighted reading and very young child narration all combine to make these apps really charming treats.

  

"Pip and Posy", ideal for pre-schoolers

   Pip (a rabbit) and Posy (a mouse) are best friends created by Axel Scheffler and they've had many picture book outings involving sharing their toys, bathroom emergencies, monster scares and snow creature construction. I've a real soft spot for them, they are very sweet and entertaining characters and their exploits are lovingly aimed at a toddler's experiences. This is their only app so far, and as the title suggests it's a game app to entertain fans rather than being story based.

   It features artwork from the stories and there are jigsaws to complete, differences to spot, card puzzles to solve and pictures to colour. My favourite task is the one where you point the tablet's camera at yourself and pull faces in order to copy Pip and Posy. Great fun with charming characters, complete with fun voice and music tracks.

"Parker Penguin", ideal for 3+

   Parker Penguin is the second in a new app avenue for Nosy Crow - non-fiction, specifically gentle but engaging natural history. The first outing featured Franklin the Frog. This material is composed by a couple Barry and Emma Tranter, who are responsible for the artwork and text, respectively.  The artwork is composed of circles, ovals, arcs etc, hence one aspect of rounds. The other is that the stories are cyclical - they begin with a baby animal and come right back around, that animal has offspring and we can go through their whole lifespan too, and that off their offspring. So we meet Parker, and his mate Penelope; and then their chick Percy and his mate Pippa and lastly Peter and Pearl at which stage we can keep the loop going by meeting their chick Parker.

   I think this is a really great, lively, layered and informative app. The use of a child's voice talent and really subtle music and sound effects are pitched perfectly. The art is funky and stylishly coloured. The interactivity (tilting the screen to make the penguin slide faster, nicely pulsing dots that tempt you to touch certain live areas) is clever and not at all intrusive. Helping Parker feed and then assisting the chicks as they shed their down were my favourite bits. And the text highlighting is lovely for early readers. It has great tangents to explore beyond the simple story of the life cycle - you can learn about ice-bergs and whales and seals, but it is never so much that you get bored of it or distracted from your character.



   Nosy Crow's next release is another fairytale - Red Riding Hood. I'm looking forward it and hope there are more Bizzy Bear, Pip and Posy and Rounds in the pipeline, too.

   Thanks for reading,
              LJ

A review of "My Big Shouting Day" by Rebecca Patterson

Hi People in the Ether, and Happy New Year,

   So, Santa (and my very lovely boyfriend) brought me lots of lovely picture books, some cool YAs and a smattering of story-fuelled apps for Christmas. Very exciting stuff! And I'll spend the next few weeks reviewing them.

   "My Big Shouting Day" was a huge hit last year, and it won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize for children aged six and under. It follows Bella whose day goes from bad to worse as his baby brother drives her mad, the toothpaste is irritating and her shoes are annoying. Everything winds Bella up and so she vents her fury into almighty screams and shouts, hectoring her mother about the awful dramas she must endure.

    Bella is thrillingly vocal in her frustration. Young readers will identify with a tantrum-indulging protagonist as adult readers will giggle along at hysteria that is both familiar and ridiculous. The story is amusing and has a comforting conclusion - Bella apologises for being such a terror and is lovingly forgiven and hugged by her mum and treated to a bedtime story.

    Patterson's characters are bristly and realistic, and her text is full of fun extremes and repetition, everything is too this or too that. The story is succinct and perfectly rendered, accompanied by beautiful, bold and retro illustrations, complete with very emphatic facial expressions. I love how the minor background characters are unimpressed or merely amused of Bella's outbursts. The most effective spread features a supermarket scene - Bella's mother is suppressing her exasperation while  fellow shoppers are judgmental and disdainful.

    The varying font sizes reflect Bella's mounting fury. And the colour palette for the other characters and all the settings is subtle and full of pastel shades - while Bella herself, for most of the story, is kitted out in angry red. And the black chasm of her screaming mouth in each scene serves as a wonderful focal point.

      This is great for passionate pre-schoolers and weary adults, providing the former with a mirror to their own tantrums and resupplying the latter with wry laughs and some patience to help cope with such escapades  This summer sees a new Bella adventure "My Busy Being Ella Day", so more fun and histrionics are in store.

      Thanks for reading,
               LJ

A review of "Just Right" written by Birdie Black and illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw

Hey there, Folks in the Smoke,

   I'm so very sorry for this tardy post - life has been a bit hectic lately and posting wasn't possible. But I hope this Christmas review will compensate somewhat.

   "Just Right", also published as "Just Right for Christmas", is a simple and enchanting tale full of festive flavour and snowy scenes.

   It's Christmas Eve in a snow-laden kingdom. We follow the route of a piece of red cloth and learn of the uses it and it's subsequent off-cuts are put to - the initial bolt is used to make a cloak for a princess. The scraps are placed by the back door and taken by a kitchen-maid, she then makes a gift for her mother. The same process is repeated with each set of scraps being perfect from which to fashion a smaller gift for a smaller creature until the very final gift of a scarf for a tiny mouse. Each gift is sewn with love and given with tenderness. The reveal spread, on which we see each recipient opening and adoring their present, is gorgeous and sweet. 

    Black's story is tender and warm, it feels like a traditional tale with a perfectly pitched array of characters and an elegant thread binding them together. The text has a beautiful cadence, and I love the repetition of "snipped and sewed, sewed and snipped" as each character creates their own gift from the red cloth.The closing sentiment of each gift being "just right", and that is "just how Christmas should feel", is sure to warm even the chilliest heart. 

   Beardshaw's illustrations are poised and cosy - her people are rosy-cheeked and her animals are exquisitely furry and very energetic. The colour palette of the brown of the forest, the red of the gifts and the white of the snow makes you feel chilly and comforted simultaneously. 

   I'd recommend this as a charming addition to the yuletide reading list - it's heartfelt and delightful. 

   Thanks for reading, and a very Merry Christmas (or general holiday season) to you and yours,

                Lisa 

A review of "A World Between Us" by Lydia Syson

Hello People in the Ether,

   This debut by Lydia Syson is a thrilling, romantic, powerful and heartfelt description of war and love.

   It's 1936 and Felix (short for Felicity) is a trainee nurse in the East End of London. She has all but escaped her claustrophobic, suburban background - apart from visits to a quiet mother, a judgemental brother and a sweet (but apparently dull) brother's best friend, George. In a dramatic opening we find her trapped in Whitechapel during a famous anti-fascist demonstration - where she meets an activist, Nat.

   A tender courtship doesn't have much time to develop before Nat leaves to join the International Brigades in Spain against Franco's forces. At the prospect of being apart from Nat and wanting to avoid a proposal from George, Felix decides to flee to Spain too and there she volunteers as a battlefield nurse. Newspaper man, George, follows Felix in the hope of returning her safely to her family but he soon realises the merit of the anti-fascist struggle and enlists as a mechanic in the Brigades. So, a complicated and intense love triangle plays out against the backdrop of the battles and horrors of the Spanish Civil War - we follow each of our trio through the drama.

   The plot is cleverly constructed; full of vivid set-pieces, political intrigue, questioned loyalties, exciting twists and bracing battle scenes. The romance, its thrills and pains, is very convincingly depicted and you do feel genuinely swept along with the pent-up passions and the world-falling-apart atmosphere. 

   Syson's style is subtle and gorgeous, she melts you into another time and place. The text is crystalline, by turns simple and poetic. Her pacing is really great, I found it compelling reading. She draws sharp, confused, flawed characters that you feel for, and occasionally feel frustrated with. George and Nat are honourable, steadfast, true matinee idols while Felix is honest, idealistic,naive and brave. I found the romance tender and exciting, and the battlefield medicine passages were visceral. 

   I think this is a nigh-perfect YA read, its engaging, pulsing, beautifully written and doesn't shy away from complicated facts and tough history. Equally highly recommended for early teens interested in history and politics or those wanting an intense love story without any supernatural hook.

    Thanks for reading,

       LJ