Tongo Circus

$2.99, iPad

Teaches: music, causality

CTR Rating: 82%

CTR Review

A musical busy box that with beautiful art, music and graphics. The main drawback is a lack of direct connection between your finger motion or tap, and the screen events. This blurs feelings of control which is essential for the intended age range. You start in a simple, well illustrated circus scene that scrolls left or right. Tapping on one of 11 areas lets you interact with a scene, simply by tapping. These include Tongo's magic hat, making a lion jump through a ring, moving dancers, and so on. The app includes 15 minutes of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Georges Bizet, Johannes Brahms, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka, Charles Gounod, Edvard Grieg, Joseph Haydn, Modest Mussorgsky, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Nikolai A. Rimsky-Korsakov, Johann Strauss and Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky. The music comes from the classic label NAXOS. This app is a delight for both your eyes and your ears. We wish it were more responsive, however.