Kids' iPad App: Snow Queen - Mesmerizing Book App

This Kids’ iPad app is one of the most masterfully crafted interactive books I’ve ever come across. The Snow Queen app (by Timecode) has almost everything you could want from an iPad Books app: a smooth and easy user interface, well written story, stunning artwork, beautifully orchestrated music and sounds, mesmerizing animations and interactions, and engrossing activities that all come together to capture your child’s attention and imagination — and yours as well.

This much loved literary classic, written by Hans Christian Anderson, can be read in 2 ways: by listening to the professional female narration or by reading it yourself at a leisurely pace. The Snow Queen story is segmented into 7 “mini-chapter” parts with spell-binding artwork, animations, interactions with fun (hidden) surprises in between. The actual story text (in this kids’ iPad app) is displayed and read vertically; the text highlights in red as it moves down the page in time with the audio narration. If reading on your own, the page can be swiped upward as you move down the page. Moving between pages is an effortless swipe that happily lands you onto the next page with child-like wonderment.

There is an incredible attention to detail at every turn in this kids’iPad app — starting with Timecode’s “attention grabbing” app icon that stopped me dead in my tracks. I was also pleasantly surprised to find the animated mouse icon, which turns the narration on and off. Even the navigation bar had interesting icon images to manipulate the sounds up and down (bell, trumpet, lips with teeth). Timecode also incorporated a lightbulb icon (function) that darkens a page background and illuminates all the interactive opportunities for each page so that you don’t miss anything (blow on the top of the iPad screen to start a blizzard, light candle flames, and a host of other tiny objects waiting to fascinate you).

A few times I was surprised to see my own reflection appear on the iPad screen. On some story pages you can pinch the artwork in or out for an up-close view or for a more expansive one. It’s so easy to get lost in the many intriguing animations, interactions and activities in this kids’ iPad app. My kids (teens, mind you) even enjoyed completing puzzles, Raven’s collection hunt, and a tap-to-paint coloring sheet. The only thing obviously missing in this interactive book (that I couldn’t find) is an index page to easily hop to any page at a glance.

This compelling kids’ iPad app conjures up the same magical wonderment of other amazing story/movie classics like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Alice in Wonderland. The music is hauntingly beautiful and will lead you through the interesting storyline in trance-like curiosity as you gaze at breath-taking artwork, take in mesmerizing animations, interactions and sounds that are sure to leave you spellbound.