A Tale Off the Top of my Head

$3.99, iPad

Teaches: reading, logic

CTR Rating: 80%

CTR Review

Art meets interactivity in this interesting electronic story from France. As you explore the screens you discover some interesting interactive techniques, such as on the last page, where the moon spells "The End". We found the interactive areas of each screen to be innovative but hard to figure out. This is because they're not always responsive. This leads to exploration, but not always the way the author intended. In the story, Ari Allistair Arx-Sorensen is just a little over a hundred years old. As he watches a fire burn down his family home he tells the story of his life and his childhood memories of the big parties they had on the grounds of the old family manor house. Ari lives there as a recluse with his she-wolf Nimis and spends his time dreaming and reading. His father, Otto, holds concerts of silence while his mother, Mercy, paints a portrait of Ari that captures him in the most minute detail, until the day this idle and fanciful life is turned upside down by the arrival of Flowing-Water. The app is available in both English and French and features both Read to Me and Read by Myself. The lite version includes only the first chapter of the story, for no cost.