FIVE LITTLE SOMETHINS

A create-a-story app that attempts to combine literature, math and gaming.

The app opens with an introduction to the Storybook Mom, an animated white woman who lives on the cover of a nondescript book. As she narrates, her lips move as though talking, but she looks more like Samantha of Bewitched wiggling her nose or someone who has a facial tic. Nonetheless, the “story” begins with a lemon bobbing in the sky. Touch it and a group of children says, “Lemon.” Tap it a second, third and fourth time, and readers hear “Bumblebee?” Readers must then drag stripes, antennae and an eye to the lemon, which causes it to look like a bumblebee and fly away. On the next screen, five “Lemblebees” are counted off and hover until they’re drawn one by one to a rose—which, inexplicably, causes them to fall to the ground. Tapping the fallen fruit-insects temporarily resurrects them, but they are immobilized again almost immediately. Finally, readers are told to type in the name of someone who can help, and after a ceremonious formality, that person supposedly releases the remaining Lemblebees to their next adventure. Lather, rinse, repeat. Readers can save stories to continue them, but continuing means mostly doing the same things over and over again.

Not much honey in this comb.