SPLOTCH: THE CENTER

A minimalist fable featuring an inkblot, a blank page and (aside from page “turns”) a single animated effect.

A smiling blob yearns to be able to migrate from the edges of the screen to the center, where everything is purportedly better: “There isn’t a bedtime at the center of the page!” Nor homework, nor chores, nor pesky siblings, nor bullies, but there is longer recess and a bedroom, and “you always get chicken nuggets….” Alas, when the blot does manage with herculean effort to reach its goal, none of these benefits materialize—and so, after a few wordless screens and with the realization that “I make things better…not the center of the page,” it oozes edgeward once again. Although the blob can’t be moved around, it splatters at a touch (with a musical tone), then reverts a second or so later. Children can read the large-type text themselves or opt for the author’s animated rendition, and using a common (but in this case superfluous) feature also open a strip of thumbnail page images at any time.

Sketchy but oddly effective.