A simple adventure with a touch of fantasy to share with a very young child.
Juliette loves the shiny red balloon she gets from her dad. “With her red balloon,” Juliette can float up in the air to do mundane things, like “see who is at the door,” to more exciting things: She can “touch the giraffe’s horns" or “slide on a rainbow,” for instance. The cartoon illustrations are uninspired and have a clip-art, generic look. Readers can choose between Japanese or English narration, and there are some sound effects and an optional music track. The simple interactive features work well and are simple enough for very little ones to accomplish. "Simple" is the operative word, though: Readers can send her swishing down the rainbow, accompanied by a chiming sound effect, or set the birds chirping, but little else. The page-by-page navigation is sufficient, since there are so few pages. The goodnight ending makes it suitable for use as a bedtime story.
Though everything works right, it remains an undistinguished effort. (iPad storybook app. 2-5)
