Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Bad apple Mac and Will, a worm who lives inside Mac, are back in this sequel to Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship (Putnam, 2012). The best friends plan the perfect day at the watering hole, but not all goes according to plan. The watering hole turns out to be more of a mud pit. Never ones to let good mud go to waste, they build an Amazing City of Mud, which is even more fun after their other apple friends join in. Then the rain starts, and they all take shelter. The perfect day is ruined, or is it? Using their imaginations, irrepressible Mac and Will tell a fantabulous story to entertain their friends until the sky clears. It is then they discover that their mud city has been flooded but their water hole has returned to its full glory, and much swimming ensues, ending in a perfect day. The dynamic, spot-on illustrations rendered in oils on canvas are matched by a clever and rather punny text. The inclusion of helpful bees and butterflies and a leaf kite provides a nice whimsical touch. The use of various fonts, colors, and white space, and placement of the text help to animate the already lively story. For those who can overlook the weirdness of a worm living in and presumably eating his best friend, this story of making the best of it when plans go awry is quite enjoyable and works fine for one-on-one sharing.-Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Apple Mac and his worm friend, Will, are preparing for a "perfect day" at the watering hole, but it's muddy, forcing them to get resourceful with the day's activities. As with its equally punning predecessor, Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship, this book's plot seems unrealized; Hemingway's strength lies in creating the distinctive glossy oils of the anthropomorphized apple-and-worm cast. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An outing doesn't quite go as planned for Mac the apple and his resident worm, Willfirst met in Bad Apple (2012) and still best buds.It's all about keeping a positive outlook. Arriving at the water hole to find it nearly dry, Mac and Will "[get] creative" and build mud apartment houses. The onlooking sour apples sneer at first but soon join in to make a mud city. Not even a sudden thunderstorm puts a damper on things, for though it drives the playful produce into a hollow tree, Mac's tale of "pretty swell apples" rocketing to Mars keeps Everyapple enthralled until the rain stops. Outside, the mud city is mostly gone, but the now-brimming water hole offers a fine opportunity for death-defying dives and then an afternoon spent contentedly bobbing with friends. Mac and his coterie sport smiles (mostly), stick limbs (except for Will) and shiny skins of diverse, bright colors in Hemingway's sparsely detailed outdoor and interplanetary scenes.Though Mac's "bad apple" moniker is strictly marketing, his core belief that it is "never too late to turn things around" is a nutritious notion. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
