The Lonely Beast ABC

The Lonely Beast - by Chris Judge 

A is for Ace

I’ve downloaded a lot of alphabet apps. By and large they’re functional but not much fun, and they certainly aren’t very easy on the eye - it’s as though all the muppets from Sesame Street have been bumped off and replaced by clip-art counterparts. Here, however, is something quite different. Picture book creator Chris Judge’s lovable Lonely Beast may be a hulking black mass with blinking yellow eyes, but his alphabet app is a thing of great beauty.

In effect, here are 26 beautifully illustrated picture book spreads that you can interact with. At least that’s how it feels. The app has been so well designed and crafted you can feel the picture book maker behind it, and that’s what makes it such a delight.

The Lovely Beast ABC has everything you’d expect and want from an alphabet game: clear letters (in a gorgeous typeface - big bonus), good examples of words that begin with those letters, the ability to tap the letter or word and hear it spoken as often as you need. But - here’s the extra special bit, I think - the scenes are so memorable that you can carry on playing and learning off-screen. Ask your child what happened when the Beast opened his (U)mbrella, or when he was on the (I)sland, for example. They won’t forget in a hurry because it’s so visually arresting and so much fun.

The colours are gorgeous, the art direction flawless, even the sound effects have been chosen with great humour (listen out for the horn exchange as the Beast drives off screen in his white van). I’d gladly pay more for an app of this quality. You want value? It essentially has a xylophone app thrown in, and a stress relief app in the form of ‘L is for Light’! (I guarantee you will click that switch at least twenty times in a row, it’s just so darned satisfying).

• HIGHLIGHTS
• Robot disco dancing!
• Home made farty elephant trunk 
• The Beast as a white van driver

I urge you to ditch all other alphabet apps with their nasty cartoon critters. B is for Beast, and this one’s a keeper.

THANK YOU to @MicheRobinson 

for this wonderful review - TOOT TOOT

Find out more about Children's Author Michelle Robinson by visiting her website

Three cheers for Michelle, one of my all time fave mustachioed gals!

Tiger-Pig at the Circus by John Ryan - A Me Books production

Me Books is an exciting treasure trove of an app where modern classics and old-time favourites from the picture book world rub shoulders in a virtu-maginary bookcase that any child would be proud to own. The extra bit of magic that Me Books sprinkles on top is the ability to record your own audio in place of the default narration and hotspots - perfect for a parent who has to travel but still wants to read the bedtime story, or the child who wants to practice their reading or performance skills. Not only that, but the app has an intuitive interface to create new hotspots of your own, allowing you to really make the book your own.

Those brilliant folks at Me Books have just sent one of their latest releases over to the App Puppy garage, their take on the classic "Tiger Pig" by Captain Pugwash creator John Ryan. This is a timeless story of a little pig setting out to explore the world and meeting and overcoming prejudice on the way.

Let's hear from them how they picked this forgotten classic for the Me Books treatment:

'Tiger-pig at the Circus is my favourite picture book ever. It's a story about being different and as I'm the only redhead in a large family it must have struck a chord. I'm sure my poor mother read me that book 100 times! The fact that it's now a Me Book is in no small part thanks to James, our MD, who knew of my fondness for Tiger-pig and got in touch with John Ryans daughter, Isabel, who has been a great help in bringing this wonderful book to a new audience.'

- Mike Outlaw, Creative Director at Made in Me

The narration of the text is really first class and top notch, but for me, what sets it apart is the sheer volume of non-text hotspots to click on every page - every ship passenger, tiger pig and circus animal has a little bit of improvisation to share. The overall experience is like having a story read to you by the funniest uncle you've ever had.

Here's the App Puppy top five hotspots to hunt out:

1. Juggly pig
2. The confident sealion
3. Parasol wielding clown
4. The tiger calling security
5. The lioness being won over at the end

The AppPuppy says: "a long lost favourite carefully and lovingly transformed into a Me Book which stands up proud with even the most popular picture books of modern times. 
5 stars, one to be treasured"

With thanks to Me Books and Made In Me

Find out more here 

Visit the MeBooks website here to ogle their wonderful array of picture book apps!

Follow them on Twitter at @me_books AND @hello_madeinme

In addition to my review I managed to share the joy of this app with my dear chum Libs the Bichon Frise!

Here is her review ...

If you haven¹t come across Me Books before, I¹ll just give
you a run-down of their digital doings: the free app is a little
bookshop/library, to buy and store picture books that really are that ­flat pages, without animation, so it¹s similar to reading a normal book.

Then things get a dash of digital sparkle when you start experimenting with the touchscreen hotspots ­ touch the text to have the story read to you, or touch the illustration to hear what is going on there. You can also take things a
step further, deleting their hotspots and recording your own version. The instructions only took a minute to read, and even my pudgy paws could work the hotspots ­ easy-peasy stuff.


So, what does all this mean for Tiger Pig at the Circus? John Ryan,creator of Captain Pugwash,wrote and illustrated the original book in 1978, and it¹s now out of print. Hanging
my head, I have to admit I hadn¹t come across it before. Tiger Pig himself is a stand-out character (for his name along, surely?), discovering what it means to
be different, but also special. The story does begin in a slightly Basil Exposition style, really hammering home the moral, but as soon as the tale starts to unfold it is a brilliant kaleidoscope of circus animals and excitement.
After watching all the other animals perform, then being told he doesn¹t fit in with them, he wins everyone over by being able to do every act fantastically.

And the clever team at Me Books have also added a special
extra element ­ the narration of the story is lovely, the the hilarious comments that you can explore in the illustrations that really got me chuckling. (My favourite being, ³Ah, look at me! I¹m juggling ­I¹m a juggly-pig!²)


The highlight, quite rightly, of this technology are the
large-scale illustrations, where I spent ages exploring on the
touch-screen and chuckling over the opinions of the different characters. A perfect way to reintroduce this forgotten gem.

PEEKABOO!

Peekaboo: Ladybird Baby Touch 

for iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch

£1.99 Penguin Books

    

                                      
You might be familiar with Ladybird’s Baby Touch range of books - lovely sturdy cardboard affairs with bold, block colour illustrations, very simple texts and touchy feel-y bits. The ones in our house have been very well loved, particularly the spines which are, evidently, quite delicious.

Equally delicious, and capable of withstanding a beating from a determined baby, is the Peekaboo app. It’s a true book-turned-digital and it’s been done very well. Four themed ‘stories’ are included: Farm, Sea, Animals and Vehicles. You can pick one at a time, touching the screen at various prompts to move the animation along, or play all four in sequence as a movie.

However you play, you’ll follow a short, linear story structure (‘Who’s there? Peekaboo, cow! MOO!’ etc.), with no nasty distractions or demands to buy another app - very baby friendly. The sound effects are cute, the tinkly music is gently paced and the very simple animation is smooth, eye catching and fun. Like its cardboard counterpart, it’s hard to argue with.

I do have one niggle, though, and it’s a moral one: like many others, this app’s been deliberately designed for babies aged 6 months plus. Should babies really be spending time interacting with screens? Digital is part of all our lives, and it’ll be a much larger part of our children’s lives as they grow than it ever was ours. I guess it’s down to each of us to make decisions about how much of it we want to use, and how soon we want to introduce it to our children.

We’ve had this particular app for a couple of years now, and it’s been used a lot because we all like it, my one year old included. But in truth, it does nothing that I can’t do by reading the paper versions with my baby on my knee. She prefers that, every time - and not just because she gets to eat tasty paper. She can watch my mouth as I make the words and sounds, developing her own language skills at the same time. I guess I could moo along with the app, but with someone else narrating I’d feel like I was interrupting, like the cow in that joke. You know the one. You don’t? Oh, go on then...

Knock knock.
Who’s there?
The interrupting cow.
The interrupting cow wh-
MOO!

With THANKS and snarfs to Michelle Robinson (and her side kick tuckshop)  for writing this guest post ....

A very exciting new App Project - Introducing Edmund and Cecilie

Here’s an exciting thought.

A BAFTA nominated animator and special effects expert (that would be a certain Matt Howarth, formerly of Granada Television) teaming up with Author Illustrator Chris Mould (of Yorkshire Life magazine), and backed by those wonderful peeps at Puffin, Coming together to create an interactive storytelling experience that might just be about to create an electrical storm in the app world.

Edmund and Cecilie is still in the early stages of development but because I can’t wait to get my paws on it I decided to find out some more top secret inside information.

So what’s all the fuss about?

Well, here’s Cecilie (the small non-dragony one). 

Cecilie LOVES stories and having just worked her way through an entire library she’s eager for more. 
Her inquisitive and adventurous nature leads her to an old blue storytelling dragon called Edmund who might just be the right kind of beast to solve the problem.

Edmund introduces Cecilie to the enchanting storyforest and through the door of every tree, lies one of Edmund’s tales waiting to be told. 

Together they encounter whacky wizards, snotty old witches, bumbling brave knights, cool castles and much much more.

Here's a sneak peek at the storyboard in progress ...

A simple but seemingly effective concept that sounds well suited to the functionality of the iPad (other platforms will be available)


Edmund and Cecilie is set for release in June 2013 and quite frankly I can't wait. 

More coming soon...

GUEST POST

We've got lots of exciting app reviews coming up very soon including a feature on Chris Mould's amazing new project but we thought it might be interesting in the meantime to hear about apps and app development from an alternative perspective and in this case from straight from the mouth of a student studying apps at University. 

So here is a guest post by student Pedro Kirk

My name is Pedro and I am a student at Goldsmiths University studying music computing, which is essentially a creative computer course. 

I have just started a creative computer project that will span the full year and I wanted to work on a project that has potential to be more than just coursework. I hit upon the idea of creating a digital book app for children after seeing how adept my young nephews were in playing with a musical game app I created last year. 


I am really interested in how the children's digital book market is going to grow over time, as I think it enhances the experience of reading paperbacks. It allows children more options and can contain further fun activities to accompany the book they enjoy.

I have created a questionnaire for my current project as over the next few months I have to research the market in this area and gain feedback to help inform my design decisions from the people who will be the potential users. The market is very unsettled at the moment with no real way of knowing if digital formats of childrens books will really take off. One of the main reasons for this is the huge number of free apps available from companies who don’t expect a return on them, just more exposure. I personally think there is room for creative original art works to be seen in app form. If the illustrations and story are strong enough one would hope even small developers would see interest through word of mouth and online exposure.

My partner Chloe Douglass recently wrote and illustrated an original children's book called The One and Only Pablo as her final project for her Masters degree at Kingston, I thought to combine our skills and I’m using her story for my app. (Read Chloe's blog here!)

The current market seems so hard to get into for smaller independent illustrators and writers, so I see this as a brilliant way of getting more exposure. 

If the app is successful then it can raise the profile of the illustrator/writer and bring in a larger audience for the book. Diversity of platforms is a good way to interact with new audiences, and from my research so far children are using iPads almost as much as their parents.

THANK YOU Pedro for giving us this interesting insight. GOOD LUCK with the rest of your course.

Images (c) Chloe Douglass

You can participate in Pedro's questionnaire here

TOCA BOCA RULEZ

WE LOVE TOCA BOCA!!

Little App Puppy loves Toca Boca Band.. A future Hendrix in the making!

If you haven't checked it out yet you are in for a REAL treat. 

It's engaging, hilarious and easy to use. you'll be hooked making your own ear worms and beat boxing like there's no tomorrow !

Find out more about this smashing app here... on this lovely shiny website. 

Also follow them on Twitter! @tocaboca

Tickled pink with Harry Pellereau

Recently we were lucky enough to be introduced to Timmy Tickle the ingenious app creation of dynamic and super enthusiastic developer Harry Pellereau.

Harry is an independent creative/developer, and when the iPad was launched decided that she wanted to make interactive stories, so set about learning how. Harry's app features a colourful little octopus called Timmy Tickle.
You can read more about how her ticklesome app was made here.

1- How did you come up with the concept for your app?

Timmy Tickle started as a project to help me learn how to make apps. I was working as a digital creative -  making visuals, animations and websites when I did a project for Templar Publishing.
I became inspired by creating interactive content for children and when the iPad was launched I thought it was worth exploring. I decided the best way to learn was to follow a single idea through from start to finish, so I understood the whole process. I have always loved Octopi so started by sketching and then modelling the early Timmy in plasticine. The story and activity ideas came organically as I mulled over what would be interesting to kids and what was possible with this medium. The poems were originally written in Hampstead Heath one sunny afternoon.
Later on I asked a brilliant wordsmith friend of mind to rewrite them, so the story was more engaging and the tasks on the page were described better.

2- What was the most enjoyable part of the development process?

Creating Timmy Tickle involved a very linear set of production stages. Creating the concept, character development, visual design, 3D modelling, 3D animation, video compositing, developing the code, bug testing and finally user testing. Then the process almost starts again, as things are revised and improved. Probably the most enjoyable part for me was taking the character animations and connecting them with the code to make Timmy come alive. The most rewarding was the user testing. This part was very very hard, as I had become so involved with the project that it was difficult to hear that parents and kids didn't "like" this bit or that. However, the changes were always for the better and  it was great to see the app slowly morphing into something more user friendly and engaging to use.

3- Where do you see the future of digital apps?

Creating apps for kids is a very tricky task and requires a lot of different skills. I would love to think that more independent story-tellers and animators will launch their projects on apps first, however I think at the moment the bar is set pretty high. Some companies are creating amazing and incredibly complex content, and selling it for very little. The larger companies with established brands can afford to do this as they will sell in such large numbers, however I think it is hard to make a project profitable with an unknown brand and it is only getting harder. The biggest issue for app developers is getting noticed, and as more kids apps flood the market this issue will only get worse. My hope is, that quality will rise to the surface and small gems of digital content will get discovered organically. I hope that smaller development teams and independents will continue to make innovative and creative apps to delight and inspire young kids and harness the future capabilities of tablet devices.


4- How do you think apps will effect the book market?

Personally I don't see apps replacing books. They work best as a partnership and expand on the child's experience. I hope that as apps are used to educate and entertain kids they become a way of discovering new characters and stories, which will then translate to books and reading.


5- What will you be working on next?

At this point I am taking a little break from app development. I would love to make another app with Timmy, however I have to see if it would be a commercially sensible venture. The first book was definitely done for the love of the project - creating an app is a incredibly labour intensive and exhausting process! I would like to explore Timmy's character in other mediums and have approached some publishers about making Timmy Tickle into a range of printed books. In the meantime, I plan to keep my finger on the children's app pulse and see how the market develops!

Meet Timmy for yourself by clicking here!

Timmy Tickle is an engaging and enriching app with which so much care and attention in the development process has lead to the creation of a great value app which explores many of the functions of the iPad allowing your little ones to play, learn and explore this app over and over.

BUY THE TIMMY TICKLE APP - HERE

Click here to read a cracking review featuring Timmy Tickle on the CApptivatedKids blog

All images featured are taken from the Timmy Tickle App - (c) Helen Pellereau