Animal Rescue

The functioning of the app is extremely straightforward with intuitive help guides leading the user gently into the narrative. The layout and controls are simple and functional which enhance the users experience by not getting in the way of the flow. The start screen is simple and bright depicting a bear being shut behind bars looking forlornly at the page turning icon at the bottom of the screen, inviting you into the story.

The main start screen depicts two scenarios. The scene on the right, which is the current scene, shows a poor baby elephant on a trapezoid plinth in the middle of a circus arena with a spotlight flashing and the audience clapping him, hoping he will perform some appealing trick, he is obviously not amused and is feeling rather uncomfortable. The child can then click on the second scenario where the baby elephant is transformed into the plains of Africa hanging onto his mother, trunk to tail, happily moving off to the water hole in his rightful habitat.

The rest of the pages are laid out around the perimeter of the screen with an iconized illustration of each creature. Each creature is simply, but effectively, illustrated with subtle graphic effects to enhance the storyline so that the main message is not lost, therefore keeping a focus on the moral of the story. The story incidentally has no words which only adds to the power of the message and creates a number of opportunities for children to ask questions and parents to offer their responses and guide the narrative.

The story covers a comprehensive range of moral issues from battery chicken farming, captive animals, and the use of animal skins for coats and shoes together with using animals for entertainment. Ultimately a very powerful way of introducing the reader into the vagaries and darker side of humanity and our lust for consumerism. Powerful stuff for preschool children and a great exercise in trusting the moral maturity of our pre-schoolers!

The developers web site is quite basic, but informative, which includes a thirty second introductory video of the application and various complimentary reviews. The book page of the web site links out to a comprehensive range of pre schoolers books ranging from a selection of five books on our senses i.e. “I Touch” to Nursery Rhymes, many of these I suspect will now be converted to interactive books.

As a first foray into the fiercely competitive and vast pre school applications market this will establish a niche I am sure. With a delightful mix of clear and minimalistic graphics, excellent, enhancing audio covering complex and important themes, this application has my vote and the vote of my numerous grandchildren, who queued up to use it with excitement and awe. I look forward to the further development of applications based around the already substantial number of books that have already been published and are available on the web site.

The award of the our five star mark is a magnificent achievement and illustrates a potential for further developments, so we will watch this space.