Publications about books for children and young adults
Each week we publish a review of a new app people are--or should be--talking about.
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, [...]
Epic Tales’s Hansel & Gretel (2012) revisits the well-known fairy tale with tongue firmly in cheek. An affable bookseller/storyteller named Silvertongue narrates the story of an impoverished woodcutter, his shrewish wife, and their two children. The plot contains several differences from more traditional versions of the story: Tiny, bad-tempered gnomes are ubiquitous in the illustrations and [...]
Auryn Inc.’s seek-and-find interactive storybook app Mitzi’s World: Seek and Discover More Than 150 Details in 15 Works of Folk Art (2012), based on Deborah Raffin’s book of the same name, features a selection of “neo-naive” oil paintings by prominent folk-artist Jane Wooster Scott. Spanning the four seasons, each painting depicts a scene inspired by [...]
Sleepy Mole and his teddy bear need a new place to rest because construction workers have intruded upon their burrow, making it too bright and too noisy to sleep. And so begins the choose-your-own-adventure storybook app Sleepy Mole’s Moving Day (Ginger Whale, 2011). On his quest to secure a quiet abode, Sleepy Mole encounters an [...]
Beautiful nonfiction app Bats! Furry Fliers of the Night (Bookerella and Story Worldwide, 2012) introduces primary and intermediate users to the world’s only flying mammal. Author Mary Kay Carson — whose many nonfiction print books for children include 2010 Scientists in the Field title The Bat Scientists — presents accessible information in seven brief chapters [...]
“Quite a long time ago, in a small village in ancient China, there lived a boy named Bing-Wen.” So begins Dragon Brush (Small Planet Digital, 2012), an interactive picture book app created by John Solimine and Andy Hullinger. Based on a Chinese folktale (no sources are given), the story follows a young rabbit artist, Bing-Wen, [...]
In Ghost Hand Games’ app The Legend of Momotaro (November 2012), Corey Finkle retells a well-known Japanese legend of a boy who emerges from a huge peach to be adopted by a childless couple. Momotaro exhibits exceptional strength and wisdom for his age very early on. When Momotaro is a teenager, he learns of oni, [...]
Mr. Sandman: Fear of the Dark (August 2012), the debut storybook app from French developer Hocusbookus, is one of the most arresting examples of digital application technology I have ever seen. The combination of intricately layered backgrounds (clearly influenced by shadow puppetry aesthetics), deep nighttime colors, an eerie musical underscore, and interactive elements breathes life [...]
Working with developer Pony Tale, Flashlight Press recently released a digital adaptation of their humorous bedtime story I Need My Monster (December 2012). The print picture book, written by Amanda Noll and illustrated by Howard McWilliam, was originally published in April 2009. The young protagonist can’t fall asleep when Gabe, the monster under his bed, [...]
I’m glad to see a new addition from Callaway Digital Arts, developer of the well-executed Monster at the End of This Book app. In the educational Endless Alphabet (January 2013), young users explore the alphabet, spelling, and vocabulary. Users may begin the app with any letter of the alphabet by tapping it on the root menu, [...]
