
This is a short but sweet book with a simple interface and lots of appeal for the under six crowd. For the youngest readers, this app will be a treat, featuring lots of well-produced interactive and animated elements. Beautiful bugs flutter, the sun sets with moon rising, or a dandelion transforms, blowing away its delicate seedlings ... these are some of the lovely enhancements on offer over the twelve pages of this book of verses.
Simple, but but well-crafted lines of poetry are nicely narrated in either British English or Russian. Tap a small flag in the left-hand corner to change language or mute device for silent reading. There is a home button on each page, plus a setting to silence the background music on the cover, which is helpful since the tune is on a rather short loop. Text is in an easy to read font with relatively simple word construction that would be suitable for early readers, although it doesn't highlight as spoken. Since these 12 short rhymes could be read in any order and still make sense, it's nice that the cover is also a page guide (see screenshot).
There are two 'hot spots' on the cover that when tapped, leave the app, something my child & I did many times accidentally. I would recommend moving these into a secondary menu, at the very least. I also think the title of this book is a bit of a misnomer, or at least felt somewhat misleading. I would be more apt to call this book "Sweet Nursery Rhymes" rather than "Funny Kids Poems". For example, this is the entire poem from one page, "Little kitty, where are you? I would like to play with you! We could run and play all day, so come on out! Don't stay away!" Cute? Sure. Funny? Not really. And it's a tad short for a whole poem ...
The title of this app may have lost something in translation, but the rest of WeAreFaces' presentation is delightful. The sweet rhymes pair nicely with the illustrations and all the enhancements feel lovingly detailed, including motion activated elements. Story comprehension, however, might be lost somewhere in the process. There is so much to explore that the rhymes become part of the background experience with this app. Yet the foreground experience was so lovely ... it won my child and I over. Recommended.
All reviews are of the app, not the platform/device. Based originally on iPad versions. Minor technical details may vary.
Author/Illustrator:
Marina Lindholm
Developer:
We Are Interfaces AB
Length (time):
4 - 6 Minutes
Based on non-digital book: No
Allows Own Narration:
No
Uses Motion: Yes
Age: 2 - 6
Languages:
English •
Length (pages):
12 Pages
Twelve short rhymes, like "Little kitty, where are you? I would like to play with you! We could run and play all day, so come on out! Don't stay away!" are presented featuring the following themes:
Dandelion/Blow, Crows/Fight, Kitty/Play, Geese/Pond/Swimming, Chilly Night, Moth Fluttering, Bugs (Beetle/Flea), Bell Ringing, Weather/Storm, Puppy/Butterfly, Kitty/Paws
Orientation: Landscape
Format: Universal
Options:
Background Music On/Off, Home, Page Guide (Cover), Language (Russian/English), Links to: Web, AppStore
App Release Date:
2011-11-21
Size: 44.84 MB
Version: 1.2.1
Lite Version Available: No