Wuwu and Co.
© 2015 Step In Books
Ready for something completely different? This innovative language experience from Denmark lets you "step inside" an original five chapter story, using the movement of your screen to pull you into a frozen world inhabited by five strange but friendly creatures as they experience the coldest winter in two thousand years. The story hub is a Little Red House, where a warm fire is burning. To read the story, you point your screen down; to visit one of the story chapters, you look up. The story chapters are presented in traditional paragraphs, with clear narration (in English). By spinning 360 degrees (in the real world) you can look around and touch items in the story; e.g., to find a key, match sticks or lanterns. You can shake the iPad to get the snow off the tree, shout into it to wake up some creatures, and use the camera to find colors. Both the art style and the way the characters are narrated will seem very different to some children -- one tester thought that the app was designed by a child. This is about as far from a Walt Disney production as you can get; and is proof that the iPad brings you new ways to tell a story. Note that it helps to sit in an office chair that spins when using this app.
$2.99, iPad
Teaches: reading, reading comprehension
CTR Rating: 88%