The Billy’s Booger storybook app (Moonbot Studios, June 2015) begins with an introduction, straight from the front flap of Billy’s Booger: A Memoir (Sorta) (Atheneum, also released in June): “This is Billy…one day Billy entered a contest. He made a book. About Me!” The “me” in question? A little green guy in a superhero cape who identifies himself as “Billy’s Booger.” (On the next screen, after bellowing “BILLY’S BOOGER!” he further identifies himself as author William Joyce.)

The book itself is somewhat complicated in format, featuring a book-within-a-book purportedly written by young Billy (Joyce, of course) and narrated by — you guessed it — his booger. (The booger happens to have superhero-level math powers, which it kindly shares with Billy.) The rest of the book tells the story of how irrepressible Billy enters his booger-based tale into a writing contest.



The app is mainly a reading of the book — all its parts, including every inch of the cover — with some creative enhancements. Joyce’s booming voice is just silly enough; if anything, it’s toned down a little during the booger-narrated book-within-the-book, perhaps because boogers are smaller than humans. Throughout, there are various animations, including a nearly-toppling mountain of books, the flashing lights of Billy’s mad-genius collander-and-wires hat, and of course, the booger’s trajectory during a fateful sneeze.



Joyce gives some commentary about the copyright page, then expressively reads the parts he finds interesting and super-speed-reads the Library of Congress CIP information. There’s also a round of applause after the author bio. The cheery, unobtrusive music is optional, as is the narration. Oh, and the booger looks nothing like an actual booger, so it’s possible to forget to be grossed out.

This isn’t an app you’d, um, pick for its interactivity. There’s an option to do one math problem (all the examples I saw were one-digit-by-one-digit multiplication), but once you get it right, you’re just led to a page with other apps from Moonbot (including The Numberlys and The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore). Still, it’s a solidly entertaining reading experience, read slowly enough that it’s easy to follow along with the text. This might be a useful app to have handy on long car trips — but it might be wise to also bring along a box of tissues.

Available for iPad (requires iOS 7.0 or later); $2.99. Recommended for primary users and up.