BOOGER TOWN
by Tatyana Mironova & illustrated by Christine Elefsiniotis & developed by Lazy Bird, Inc.
Aimed (not too well) at young sleuths, this is a double mystery covered in gallons of bright green goo.
Readers, along with a trio of young Booger Town detectives, have two cases to investigate: the trashing of Mrs. Lara Loogy’s candy store and the disappearance of favorite teacher Mr. Dimples. The kids identify the three suspects: homeless, furtive Old Man Waffles; va-va-voom new math teacher Ms. Foxy (“That’s no math teacher. She ain’t right”); and corpulent Loogy herself, who is observed creeping away to, as one detective ungrammatically puts it, “sneak candy, tons of them.” With the help of readers, they gather supposed “clues” by dragging a magnifying glass around slimed, dripping cartoon scenes, but their sleuthing leads only to an abrupt, open-ended conclusion. The animations are slow and stiff. The narrative, which appears piecemeal with multiple swipes on each screen, is read in a monotone, though dialogue is a smidge more animated. Neither the clues nor a final view of Mr. Dimples floating down a giant esophagus actually suggests any culprits or solutions. The app rewards (if that’s the word) anyone who reaches the end with a swipe-activated close-up of a lad eating a booger.
It’s snot hard to deduce the true audience for this.
(iPad storybook app. 5-7)