
Get ready for an innovative app from Fox & Sheep, developers of the award winning Nighty Night. Chomp is not exactly a book and not really educational app material either. It's flexible for use in schools but also laugh-out-loud entertainment for all ages. Perhaps it could be called a digital wordless picture book or even a storytelling platform. According to Wired.com's stellar recommendation, "It’s not quite a storybook, and not quite a video game. It’s ostensibly for kids, but its creative appeal is universal. It’s definitely digital, but feels analog. The app lives at the intersection of all these things, which is one reason it’s such fun to play."
Over more than 50 screens with arrow pageturns, young readers (and old alike) will find an app that defies definition. It's animated, using familiar images like superman with the users' face or humpty dumpty. You can record short videos, too. But Chomp also allows for rich discussion, eliciting expressive language in all but the most reluctant child. My personal favorites were the hour glass and faucet, both of which distort the image after you tap into a stream of sand or water. My 9-year old son loved the fish most, which allows you to use the camera to take an upside down video of your lips, pursed (with bubbles coming out, of course).
What will you do with this app in your digital library? That depends. For schools it is a great tool for creative expression, making kids an active participant in their learning environment. A teacher at my son's school even tweeted about using Chomp recently. For families, this app could be used together to laugh, play, talk together and create. Kids alone will enjoy it too. In short, this is an app for all times and all ages, a hybrid of storytelling and the best kind of creative play!
Highly Recommended!
This app has been thoroughly evaluated by our staff. Please click on the 'star ratings' tab above, to see how it fared in all nine of our rating categories. See synopsis tab for more details about the storyline.
All reviews are of the app, not the platform/device. Based originally on iPad versions. Minor technical details may vary.
Author/Illustrator:
Christoph Neimann
Developer:
Fox and Sheep GmbH
Length (time):
15 - 20 Minutes
Based on non-digital book: No
Allows Own Narration:
No
Uses Motion: No
Age: 2 - 102
Languages:
English • French • Spanish •German •Italian •Japanese •Dutch •
Length (pages):
54 Pages
From iTunes:
"Editor´s Choice Award" by Children´s Technology Review for Excellence in Design!
wired.com: "It’s not quite a storybook, and not quite a video game. It’s ostensibly for kids, but its creative appeal is universal. It’s definitely digital, but feels analog. The app lives at the intersection of all these things, which is one reason it’s such fun to play."
“CHOMP by Christoph Niemann” is the latest imagination from internationally renowned children’s author and illustrator Christoph Niemann, whose App ‘Petting Zoo’ is already loved by millions of children and families around the world.
‘CHOMP’ combines playful, humorous, and lovingly hand-drawn animations with live video, enabling children and adults alike to slip into a variety of comical roles. From a virtuous pianist, to a spaghetti-slurping dog, or a living cuckoo-clock, anything is possible!
What makes this App so inspiring and special is that children participate using their own faces, mimicry, and song, allowing their creativity to run free.
With the video functions, all of these adventures can be saved forever. ‘CHOMP’ is so easy and intuitive to use that kids can create and sing their own personal messages to send to parents, grandparents, friends, or siblings, all in the blink of an eye.
Highlights :
• Hand drawn animations made with love and care.
• Over 50 hand-drawn scenes with countless funny animations.
• Fun for all ages.
• No language knowledge needed. The app is text-free.
• No in-app purchases, invasive advertising, or data mining.
• Record play sessions with integrated video recording.
INSTRUCTIONS:
• Children can swipe left and right to change animations. Tap the screen to see the fun.
• Grownups can open the camera menu in the bottom left to record videos. Tap to microphone icon to enable sound recording, use the large center button to start and stop video recording.
• Please enable camera permissions when prompted.
Just as with his App ‘Petting Zoo’ and his New York Times blog ‘Abstract City’, Christoph Niemann uses ‘CHOMP’ to once again show us his own unique, absurd, and always funny view of the world.
Press reviews:
wired.com:
"It’s not quite a storybook, and not quite a video game. It’s ostensibly for kids, but its creative appeal is universal. It’s definitely digital, but feels analog. The app lives at the intersection of all these things, which is one reason it’s such fun to play."
Orientation: Portrait
Format: Universal
Options:
Play, Record, Links: None
App Release Date:
2016-01-27
Size: 40.34 MB
Version: 1.1
Lite Version Available: No