CINDERELLA

A sweet version of the tale, with Disney-style cartoon illustrations and a carriage full of literacy-building tools.

With help from her matronly “godmother, who was a fairy,” Cinderella meets and weds the Prince, forgiving her stepsisters Drizella and Anastasia (her stepmother vanishes after an early cameo) and going on to live at court “happily, with the Prince and their many children.” The text and an optional audio narration that comes with both highlighted words and auto-advance can be switched between French and English on any page. A swinging cord visible on every page (even the credits) pulls down a menu of further options—pronouncing individual words at a touch, displaying for selected words either a brief definition or a small image, even highlighting all the vowels. The illustrations are not touch sensitive, but they move or transform smoothly. In fact, touching the screen isn’t a good idea, as it seems to derail the app, causing all sound to cease until the “play” button is tapped; multiple touches create a sort of pantomime as the characters continue to move silently, cause the menu bar to flicker, set off a page turn and sometimes disassociate the text from the art.

A bland retelling, well stocked with pedagogical features.