Weirdwood Manor

The incredible tales of Weirdwood Manor is a charming story for the young reader. Weirdwood Manor is an application that cleverly combines narrative, splendid graphics, background research using the online journal and a keen observational eye to solve the puzzles. Interactive books are a growing trend for capturing the reluctant reader; this book will certainly add value to this market.

Downloading the app is easy and the reader is immediately placed in character with Oliver in the back of a sumptuous vintage car journeying through an ancient wood on route to Weirdwood Manor. Oliver, who is an orphan, won this trip by submitting his drawings in a prestigious contest. The default settings play a suitably propitious orchestral piece of background music, the narrator begins by reading the first page of the story and the sound is enabled for events, such as bumps in the road. All these sound settings can be switched off and auto-play can be enabled to have the story automatically read and pages turned.

At the top right of the screen is a discrete display of Oliver’s journal, which, when opened reveals four bookmarks titled ‘Creatures’, ‘Curiosities’, ‘People’ and ‘Mysteries’. The journal pages are filled with information as Oliver continues his journey through the story. As the pages are turned and the story unfolds the animated pictures reveal all sorts of things for the reader to touch and discover, however not all the creatures, curiosities, people and mysteries are easy to find. The display on the top of the screen on the left numerically details your discovery of these aspects of the story, but the reader can be helped by the tiny, moth winged human, the ‘Findling’ who is always available. The line drawings of the entries in the journal are excellent, reminiscent of the sepia sketched characters in the Gormenghast Trilogy of Mervyn Peake. The journal is designed to put Oliver’s journey into context and draw you ever deeper into his thoughts and emotions, this was certainly achieved for me with a natural curiosity to find all the aspects of the journal entries by going back over the story and enlisting the support of the ‘Findling’!

Each page on the journey to Weirdwood Manor has a surprise that captures the reader and develops an immersive feel for the story with an exciting array of curious creatures, weird people and wonderful mysteries. The answers to mysteries are cleverly wrapped up in challenges of games, puzzles and riddles, which, again adds to the intensity of the story and the desire to reach a conclusion. Readers have to rearrange shapes, help draw a dragon and put back the gargoyle in the right position to solve puzzles and unlock further information for the journal.

A book with an extraordinary intensity, wrapped up with some exquisite graphics making it truly immersive and impressive. The admirable attention to detail with the production is ably matched with the intriguing story line, which will capture the imagination of young readers. For the teacher and parent alike this offers an excellent opportunity for extending a child’s reading and will help a reluctant reader discover the joys of reading to deepen their understanding of the narrative by interaction. Weirdwood Manor, certainly a digital book to place on the shelf.