MOON MAN DAN
Story & Night Light
developed by Pickled Pepper Productions
The phases of the moon don’t just happen. They are the work of Moon Man Dan (or so says Pickled Peppers’ snug application).
In this extremely simple and intuitive app, readers meet Moon Man Dan, the Nooms (who pop up from the creators like those gophers you boink with a rubber mallet), three cows (for a touch of counting) and a mystery machine that falls to the moon. The artwork is like the most elementary comic strip and serves to encourage users to touch and drag various images around the screen to discover what the machine is. (It is the Hubble Space Telescope, and the accompanying explanation of its purpose will fly over most users’ heads—just like real life!—while the small selection of Hubble photographs are uselessly microscopic and marred by relatively enormous credit lines, which is a real shame considering the photographs’ mind-blowing qualities.) Users devise a contraption to relaunch the telescope and get it back up where it belongs. This involves three cows and a seesaw, and it sets the lullaby stage in motion. Moon Man Dan first makes sure planet Earth is ready for the night and then pulls a blanket over the part of the moon he happens to be sleeping on that night. The application can also function as a night light, complete with timer.
Waxing gibbous, waning crescent—that can wait. Who isn’t happier imagining the moon snuggling under a comforter? (iPad storybook app. 3-5)