Publications about books for children and young adults
All signs point to happily-ever-after in this interactive picture book app of the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood (Nosy Crow, April 2013). Vibrant, cheery colors set a lighthearted tone for wide-eyed and well-freckled Red’s familiar adventure through the woods to Grandma’s house. Unlike other, more gruesome renditions which often include an ax-wielding woodsman, [...]
Annie on My Mind and I grew up together. Published twenty-five years ago in 1982, this now-canonical lesbian-coming-of-age novel was one of the first books I ever reviewed. Sally Holmes Holtze was then assistant editor at School Library Journal’s book review section, working with Pam Pollack, and I was a new SLJ reviewer. I was [...]
Nosy Crow’s second entry in their series of life cycle educational apps for preschoolers is Rounds: Parker Penguin.
Animal SnApp, developer Nosy Crow’s latest series of preschooler apps, kicks off with Animal SnApp: Farm (October 2012) illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Six alliteratively named barnyard denizens are introduced in a puzzle which asks users to swipe their screen and align the animals’ top and bottom halves. Correctly matching the pieces and completing an animal [...]
Deck the halls, spin the dreidels… and enjoy our annual selection of new holiday books, with reviews written by the Horn Book staff. Daddy Christmas & Hanukkah Mama by Selina Alko; illus. by the author Preschool, Primary Knopf 32 pp. 9/12 978-0-375-86093-5 $16.99 Library ed. 978-0-375-96093-2 $19.99 Sadie, happily ensconced in two cultures, describes her family’s [...]
Rounds: Franklin Frog by Barry and Emma Tranter (Nosy Crow, August 2012) is a great interactive nonfiction app for one- to three-year-olds. First in Nosy Crow’s new series of nonfiction apps based on life cycles, Franklin Frog presents the life of a frog — including feeding, hibernation, mating, birth, metamorphosis, and maturation — in an [...]
The star of Benji Davies’s Bizzy Bear board book series and the Bizzy Bear On the Farm app returns in Bizzy Bear Builds a House (Nosy Crow, July 2012). Based on Bizzy Bear: Let’s Get to Work, this app invites toddlers to pitch in around a construction site with Bizzy, completing tasks such as digging [...]
Pip and Posy: Fun and Games (Nosy Crow, April) is based on Axel Scheffler’s picture book series featuring the two young friends. In the books, Posy, a mouse, and Pip, a rabbit, help each other navigate “the dramas of toddler life” such as learning to share, coping with “accidents,” and working out disagreements. As the [...]
The apps recommended below were developed within the last two years. Grade levels are only suggestions; the individual child is the real criterion. PRESCHOOL A Present for Milo by Mike Austin (Ruckus Mobile Media) Kitten Milo chases a mouse until they reach—surprise!—a birthday party. Clever interactive elements and crisp sound effects accentuate the cleanly drawn [...]
In a sort of coloring book meets Diary of a Wimpy Kid meets Choose Your Own Adventure, Nosy Crow’s new Mega Mash-Up series by Nikalas Catlaw and Tim Wesson (December) combines marginally true information about, say, Roman gladiators, with dinosaurs (or, in another volume, aliens vs. mad scientists and—well, you get the idea) into an [...]
