MIXUP picture book
By Mieke VanderBorght,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Tying familiar stories in knots is fun but a bit threadbare.
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MIXUP picture book
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What’s It About?
Three familiar stories get all tangled up in MIXUP PICTURE BOOK. Start with a hungry wolf looking for Little Red Riding Hood. When the wolf finds her and asks where she's going, kids step in to continue the "Little Red Riding Hood" story or choose to insert characters and the plot from "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" or "Cinderella." As the story continues, kids have several more chances to choose how the narrative plays out. When the story is finished, start again from the beginning and make different choices to see what happens.
Is It Any Good?
This mishmash of characters and plots has such potential for fun and creativity, so it's unfortunate that the actual execution underwhelms. MIXUP Picture Book starts from a great premise and uses simple and appealing graphics to illustrate its stories. A couple extra features -- namely, the ability to turn the audio and text narration on or off -- give users nice flexibility in how they want to experience the stories. Kids will likely get a kick out of some of the silly directions in which they can take these stories, mixing the 40 thieves with Little Red Riding Hood or putting the glass slipper on a wolf prince instead of Cinderella. Overall, however, the app's offerings feel sparse. It could be so much more with longer stories, more options, and more crazy combinations. As is, it won't take long for kids to discover all the different twists and turns, and the stories are so short there's just not a lot going on. MIXUP Picture Book is perhaps best used as inspiration for getting creative with storytelling: The app will give you a start, but take the idea and run with it to explore an infinite number of amazing story possibilities.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the original versions of the stories in MIXUP Picture Book. Find picture book versions or tell the stories by heart and let kids delight in these classic stories.
Make your own mixed-up stories. Have kids draw pictures and help them write a narrative to mix characters from their own favorite stories.
Continue what kids start with the app. They can think of alternative endings or keep the story going after the app closes it off.
App Details
- Devices: iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
- Subjects: Language & Reading : reading comprehension, storytelling
- Skills: Creativity : imagination
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Release date: April 16, 2017
- Category: Entertainment
- Topics: Fairy Tales
- Publisher: AOKI Corporation
- Version: 1.4
- Minimum software requirements: iOS 6.0 or later
- Last updated: April 28, 2017
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