RAPUNZEL
(reviewed on February 15, 2011)
Filled with digitally collaged illustrations and pages that take advantage of the iPad’s touch and motion features, this app stands out by mostly enhancing, rather than getting in the way of, a good Brothers Grimm story. The familiar tale of the beauty locked in a tower who lets down her long hair for a young prince includes painted-in pencil sketches of characters and crinkled-paper background textures that display beautifully on the iPad’s screen. In addition to fussily amusing British-accented narration, some pages have sound effects (a witch’s cackle, a bird’s chirp) activated by touch. On certain pages, the foreground can be shifted left and right by tilting the iPad. And on two of the story’s 25 pages, a black-and-white sketch can be colored in with finger motions. A handsome pop-up filmstrip bar provides easy navigation, and the narration is also available in Spanish. Whether the girl-in-distress-becomes-a-princess storyline is still relevant after nearly 200 years is an entirely separate matter, Disney movie adaptations aside. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)
