Parents' Guide to Strange Rain

It's not just that rain appears to fall onto your iPad screen – from the inside – that makes STRANGE RAIN a strange app to play around with. It's because this best-selling download is also part poetry, part artwork, part game, part interactive music experiment, and part relaxation tool. Erik Loyer's app lets you choose from one of three main modes: Wordless (simply relax to the sights and sounds of the falling rain, with ambient music); Whispers (tap the screen to see rain-related words accompany the raindrops); or Story (the most interesting of the bunch, as your interaction with the screen is tied to the narrative). The Story mode tells of a man who wanders outside in the rain to recall the events of a car accident and the family members affected. While the written thoughts repeat themselves often, the "game" portion allows your interaction with the screen to help reach the next portion of the story -- and figure out when the narrator can come in from the rain. Strange Rain is strange indeed, but it proves to be a unique and compelling story-telling experiment.