This week, there’s an app based on children’s character Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, one from Al Gore, and one featuring six Tiger Tales stories.
Title: Elmer's Special Day
Publisher/Developer: Oceanhouse Media and Andersen Press
Release date: May 10, 2011
Price: $2.99
Background: A universal favorite since the first book debuted in 1989, the stories of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant have been published in more than 20 languages. Elmer is distributed in the U.S. by Lerner Publishing Group. In this story, Elmer the Elephant changes the rules for the annual parade to include all the animals so that no one feels left out.
Features: The app combines the original text and artwork of author David McKee with features that entertain and promote reading. There are three options for reading the app: Auto Play, Read to Me, and Read It Myself. There is also picture/word association, word highlighting, professional audio narration, and scene-by-scene custom background audio.
Title: Our Choice
Publisher/Developer: Melcher Media/Rodale Books/Push Pop Press
Release date: April 28, 2011
Price: $4.99
Background: The app is based on former Vice President Al Gore’s Our Choice: a Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis (Rodale, 2009).
Features: Gore narrates the app, and there is photography, interactive graphics, animations, and more than an hour of documentary footage. Video platform and footage licensing service Thought Equity Motion, Inc., collaborated with Melcher to provide the app’s video content.
Title: MyBookshelf
Publisher/Developer: MyTales Digital
Release date: April 15, 2011
Price: $3.99
Background: The app features six stories adapted from the Tiger Tales picture books: Mrs. McGee’s Coconut, Panda-Monium!, A Little Bit of Love, The Dancing Clock, My Favorite Michael, and The Ice Cream King.
Features: Each illustration and its accompanying text has been adapted specifically for the iPad, as individual screens or easy-slide double-screen “spreads.” Each story includes the option of “Read to me,” with professional narration, or “Read by myself,” for independent reading.
To be included in this listing, please send us the app title, the book or other source for the app (if there is one -- original apps are fine, too), when it was released, price, background of the book (including such info as copies in print, when it was released, awards, and brief plot summary), and the interactive elements of the app. Send all apps and promo codes to Jim Milliot, and send news of children’s apps to Diane Roback as well.
