A simple but powerful storybook app about accommodating differences ...

Four Little Corners, by DADA Company, is a simple storybook app with a sophisticated message - fitting in with your peers can be as difficult as fitting a square peg through a round hole. Wow! Four Little Corners is digital masterpiece, based on the original book by Jérôme Ruillier, whose message is a timeless classic.

We LOVE this unassuming yet profound story/app; it is a delightfully darling little tale that has such a powerful message! Four Little Corners reinforces integral values such as friendship, integration, equality participation, comradeship, and social justice. The message that it is just fine to be different comes through loud and clear!  “Four Little Corners” makes a perfect book for young readers as well as teenagers to be reminded of what is really important. The author uses simplistic concepts to signify objects and ideas, a taut piece of string represents  an argument, a bit of cardboard for a man who lives on the streets, colors to represent emotions and of course a square and circles represent the children.

When field-testing this app, the younger children were enthralled with this app, which lends itself to scores of teachable moments. We found the older kids were equally engaged in the story and had a great time making predictions along the way. Overall, this book-inspired app demonstrates that the translation from print to digital needn’t be sophisticated, as long as a good story is involved. The underlying message — that childhood can be a time when fitting in is difficult — struck a chord with the jurors, who noted “Geometric forms have never been so moving or funny.

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.

This review was originally published by TeachersWithApps.com on January 26, 2014. Teachers With Apps was co-founded by Jayne Clare, a Special Education teacher, and Anne Rachel, an artist and Early Childhood educator. Their goal is to be a credible resource for quality educational apps.

Jayne Clare, Special Education teacher and One of “20 to Watch” Leaders Advancing Education Technology, and Anne Rachel, Early Childhood educator, co-founded TWA to help teachers, therapist, parents and students wade through the vast number of educational apps being released on a daily basis. We hope you find our site helpful and reap the benefits of our efforts.

All reviews are of the app, not the platform/device. Based originally on iPad versions. Minor technical details may vary.