Swan Lake, The

$4.99, iPad

Teaches: ballet, reading, memory, logic

CTR Rating: 82%

CTR Review

This is an ebook version inspired from the Tchaikovsky ballet Swan Lake, complete with narration and orchestrated background music. The graphics are aesthetically pleasing and the music is played on real instruments, although it is never played in unabridged form. As a result, this is a fairly nice representation of Tchaikovsky's original ideas, and at the very least, is a good way for a child to play in a setting with lovely art and sounds. The story follows the ballet, as Prince Sieg tries to find Princess Odette (the swan). The text on each page is narrated with word highlighting. Additional features include two types of puzzles (concentration and jigsaw) plus coloring pages. The main menu includes a direct link both to facebook and email, so keep an eye on how children use this app. We especially liked the ability to record your own narration. All in all, while there's not a lot of innovative features, the aesthetics make this app worthy of consideration. Made in Greece by Publisto.