OLYMPIA'S TALES

Sunny illustrations and clever interactivity can't save this poorly translated storybook about a 6-year-old girl. 

Things start off extremely badly in what appears to be the first of a series of apps. The first page reads, "Somewhere in the world, in a lively borough of a quiet town something extraordinary but normal is about to happen." That something is the impending birth of a baby girl, Olympia. Readers next see her as a burping baby, then as a bespectacled young girl who loves to draw and play with her pet tortoise. There's a dress-up game, a visit from an aunt bearing a present and a strange ending followed by "To be continued..." This would be frustrating if any tension had built up to it. The cozy, bright drawings are nice enough, but the writing and narration are so clunky that Olympia's story never ingratiates itself with readers. It's a pretty, hollow exercise in screen taps within a tale that never really goes anywhere.

Perhaps Olympia's tales will grow into something lovely, but this first installment lacks too much to spur further downloads. At least it's brief