Restart: Dot by Randi Zuckerberg

DOT KNOWS A LOT.

SHE KNOWS HOW TO TAP...

TO TWEET...

TO TAG.

A smiling young lass, dressed appropriately in a pink polka-dotted dress, knows how to manipulate her digital data. After all, she is the creation of Randi Zuckerberg. (Yes, those Zuckerbergs.) She flits from tablet to 'phone to laptop. She swipes and Scypes, shares and surfs, texts and posts, fingers flying, until one day, Dot clicks and crashes.

Mom declares it's time to alt, control, and delete, to shut down and restart. She re-boots Dot out the door and into the world outside for a refresh and reset.

With her little shaggy dog (real, not robotic), Dot (last name Com?) communicates with nature the natural way, logging in by sitting on a log, chatting and sharing a treat with the pooch, and takes in her own personal screen shot, in Randi Zuckerberg's Dot.(Harper, 2013).

Younger kids will just enjoy Joe Berger's appealing little Dot having fun in the sun, but slightly older kids will recognize the obvious message that sometimes it's necessary to put down the device and interface with the non-digital world for yourself. Illustrator Berger cleverly utilizes a primarily pink palette for Dot's digital world, adding greens and yellows while she's doing her redirecting in the great outdoors. When kids need a digital redo, to put down the devices and recycle on the bicycle, drive home that theme by pairing this one with Ann Droyd's spoof of the digitally demented, Goodnight iPad: a Parody for the next generation.. (Read my review here.)

Power Down--A Bedtime Tale for Grown-ups: Goodnight, iPad by "Ann Droyd"

THERE WERE THREE LITTLE NOOKS
WITH 10,000 BOOKS.
AND A HUGE LCD WIFI HDTV,
WITH BOSE 5.1, SIX REMOTES, AND 3-D.

Ever discover yourself fatigued with finding fresh batteries, sick of setting up setups, pooped with plugging in chargers to proper power sources, a bit underwhelmed with hunting what USB cord goes with which device? If these smart devices are so smart, why can't they charge themselves via wi-fi?

Do you have a year-end case of electronic exhaustion, WI-FI weariness, device care despair?

Then have I got just the old-fashioned remedy for you--Ann Droyd's (a.k.a. David Milgrim's) Goodnight, iPad (Blue Rider Press, 2011).

Unlike the olden days of Goodnight, Moon, where the little old lady whispering "Hush!" had only a couple of attention-getting frisky kitties to contend with, the old lady in this story has the electronic enticements of Netflix, Facebook friends, Angry Birds, and Twitter tweets to deal with at bedtime. Beeps and bleeps, glowing red, yellow, and green power sources, and endless entertainment for all ages--she's had it up to her mp3 and is ready to flush the whole bunch down the YouTube.

It's out with the new and in with the old for her family as she lowers the boom on Doom and downloads, and unfriends them all:

GOODNIGHT, IPAD.
GOODNIGHT, DOOM.
GOODNIGHT, BIRDS
LAUNCHING OVER THE MOON!

GOODNIGHT, McBOOK AIR...
GOODNIGHT, GADGETS EVERYWHERE.

Milgrim's verses are perfectly synced with the original's rhyme and meter scheme, and the illustrations evoke the classic bedtime story while spoofing the all-too-familiar media-obsessed family scene. You'll LOL when this old lady says GNSD to her electronically sleep-deprived family in this spot-on spoof of media mania. But if reading all these old-fashioned words is too much for the beeped-out brain, you can follow a link to the virtual preview video here.

[Ed. Note: The above-reviewed book is (ironically) also available on Kindle, Nook, and apps for the iPad.]