Earlier this year publisher Kids Can Press and developer Animanga Plus released a "motion comic" e-book version of 2012 print graphic novel Cat's Cradle Book 1: The Golden Twine (January 2015), written and illustrated by Jo Rioux.

This fantasy series-opener begins with an intriguing prologue: a young boy sent to lock up his family's chicken coop is attacked by a frightening creature he identifies as a caitsith. (Tap on a flashing exclamation-point icon in the upper right-hand corner to learn that the caitsith, pronounced "kate-shee," is a cat/human shapeshifter from Celtic folklore.)

From there, the narrative moves to a carnival, where an orphan girl named Suri is telling monster stories to a group of other children. Suri aspires to be a monster tamer — and the arrival of a strange little man and a huge, shadowy creature may provide her an opportunity.



These two tales (tails?) quickly intersect when Suri meets a mysterious young boy at the carnival and picks up his dropped ball of twine. Her subsequent adventure, in which she comes across unexpected monsters and allies alike, is funny and suspenseful. The Spring 2013 Horn Book Guide reviewed The Golden Twine print edition very favorably, concluding "This graphic novel's elegant, muted illustrations work with the story to combine humor and heart with fantastical suspense."



The motion comic adaptation takes this already successful story and enhances it with thoughtful animation, narration, and sound effects. Users choose from three different modes. In auto-play mode, the panels progress, with animation and narration, automatically. Another mode allows the user to pause after a handful of panels (presented on a black background) before progressing to the next few — giving the user the opportunity to pore over the panels at leisure, just as a reader of a print graphic novel might. The grouping of panels in both of these modes is well paced, adding to the suspense and humor.

In the third mode, users can read The Golden Twine as a print comic, with turning pages and no animation. Toggle between the modes quickly with icons at the bottom of the screen, hidden until the screen is double-tapped. These icons also offer options to turn narration, sound effects and music, and auto-play on/off at any time, as well as access to a thumbnail menu of the pages for easy skipping forward or rereading.

I'm looking forward to the next installment!

Available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch (requires iOS 5.1.1 or later) and Android devices; $1.99. Recommended for intermediate users and up.