A beautifully animated storybook mainly targeted at little girls, but nothing that particularly jumps out as unique.
With so many storybook apps now available for the iPad, a new release needs something special to make it stand out at £3.99. Clara Button and the Magical Hat Day just about manages it – the story and is beautifully illustrated, and it has all the features you’d expect from a top notch storybook – but there’s nothing ground-breaking about it.
That’s not to say it’s not a great storybook app, since it clearly is. It follows the adventures of Clara Button around the Victoria and Albert museum as she searches for a new hat. The story is primarily aimed at girls, but Clara’s little brother makes an appearance as well, usually causing havoc, to give the boys something to relate to as well (because most young boys prefer trouble to hats, don’t they?).
The illustrations all have a distinctive style, and you can tap on a lot of objects to get little animations of them spinning. However, a lot of the taps create little showers of small objects to appear and disappear, rather than do anything unique to the page, and after a while this effect starts to grate.
The author herself, Amy de la Haye, narrates the story very effectively and her rhythmic voice suits the feel of the app perfectly. Alternatively, you can also record yourself reading the story for your children.
Download this app: Clara Button and the Magical Hat Day for iPad
Best iPhone apps | Apple iPhone 4S review
Review courtesy of Tap!
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