is now available on iTunes as a digital album!

All five songs written by Laura Watkins from the Storybook Musical are featured, along with the beautiful orchestral score composed by David Whiteside.

Please check it out here…

What I am in fact even more proud of is that my picture is on the cover of this book, and Karen took my picture from my google Pic.

My google pic happens to be me, with a photoshopped Rhinestone Eyepatch.  One day I was debating whether or not I would get a glass eye or wear a eyepatch in the event of an accident that affected my eye.  I decided to do a mock up, and liked the eye patch picture so much I used it in all my social networks for a bit.  The end result… a very arrrrsome picture!

Thank you Karen for putting this book together!  It will be an amazing resource for authors!

Thank you Crazy Mike and Mrs. Crazy Mike for the great review!

The Snow Queen Musical – Children’s Interactive Storybook App available May 10th for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle Fire features 5 Original songs, Interactive characters, coloring pages and more all based on the classic fairy tale The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson.

The Snow Queen Musical Children’s Interactive Storybook Adventure is an interactive Children’s Storybook App based on the classic fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson that will be available May 10th for iPad, iPhone, Android, and Kindle Fire.  It features 5 original songs, interactive characters, coloring pages and much more!

Always be your Friend is Gerda’s final plea to Kai to remember who he is when she journeys to rescue him from the Snow Queen.

Music by Laura Watkins and David Whiteside.

The Snow Queen Musical Storybook App is an interactive storybook musical adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale “The Snow Queen.  It is available Spring 2012 for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle Fire.

Here is one of the songs from the Storybook App.  The song “Do you hear that Sound?” is sung by the bandit family when they hear Gerda sneaking around in the woods.  All of the words appear as they are sung, and the characters are interactive during the song.

Do you hear that sound? written by Laura Watkins, and orchestrated by David Whiteside.

The Snow Queen Interactive Storybook Musical App is due to be released Spring of 2012 for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle Fire.  It is a fully interactive musical adaptation of the fairy tale “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Anderson.

Rumpelstiltskin
By: Silicon Beach Software Inc.
Music: Yes, alot!
Format: iPhone, iPad, Android
3D imaged Computer Generated Graphics
Language: English
Price: $1.99 (right now)

In General:

This is a very different storybook app from any of the others on my iPad or iPhone. All of the illustrations from Silicon Beach Software Inc. are computer generated and 3D. You can actually get a 3D full 360 degree view of every scene! It is very cool. Each character has fluid movement interaction. It looks really great! Each page has a unique musical soundtrack(most of them popular classical music pieces). The characters all have different voices. When you press any of them they always have an action. Some of the actions are a simple arm movement, or sigh. Some include Rumpelstiltskin dissappearing in a puff of smoke an fire while “Arabella” the millers daughter makes a funny commentary.

You can close the door on the prince and hear him say “Hey, why did you close the door on me!”. Each page contains these amusing little details.

My daughter seems to really like this story. She has played it several times and I hear her playing with the interactive elements, and whizzing around the castle rooms using the 360 view.

My own personal preference is actually not for these computer generated images. I just don’t (personally) feel that they have the charm of illustrated images. The faces don’t really look expressive… there is something not as appealing about it. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very high quality app. I just, don’t love this style of illustration. But, as always…. who cares what I like. What does my 4 year old like… that is what I care about, and she seems to like this!

My 2 year old son had a turn at the iPad. Not so sure he liked it. When I looked over at him while he was using it he had my BRAND NEW IPAD held over his head ready to throw it away from him (it is in a Kraken case thank god and is supposed to be toddler proof). My point… maybe not right for a two year old. Just right for a 4 year old.

Check out some of the images below, plus their promo vid:

Watch the promo video

Title: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by Moonbot Studios
Number of Pages: 27 (but it seems like so many more due to page within page fx)
Music: Yes!  There is an “appscore” (a word I just made up for filmscore in an app).  It is great!
Price: $4.99
Format: iPad

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by Moonbot Studios is totally unlike any other app I have ever seen.  It was just amazing.  The story was charming, the message was wonderful, the illustrations were pretty much all animated and awesome to behold.   Each page had interactivity that was usually surprising and very detailed.  For example:

Mr. Lessmore is sucked into a storm and you can spin the storm around and change his journey through it spinning him either right or left.

Mr. Lessmore is handing out books to people in need.  You can drag the book onto a person and that person will transform into a character from the book.  Drag Alice in Wonderland onto a lady and she turns into the Queen of Hearts and shouts “Off with her Head!”.  Drag A Christmas Carol onto the boy and he turns into Scrooge!

There are also some games peppered throughout the app.  Putting a page back together ‘puzzle style’.  Spelling words in your alphabet cereal and taking a picture of it.  Drawing your own letters in a book…. I am kind of shaking as I type this.  It was that cool.

The narration was also so great.  A lot of narrations are kind of sing songish, but this narration was dramatic and took me totally into the story.

I have to mention the game where you play “pop goes the weasel” on the piano!  The piano keys light up and guide your child in playing the piece and the ipad then plays the piano notes.  See below:

 One thing that is nice about this app is that the story is about the wonder of books, and how they can transform your life.

My daughter (who is 4) played this app earlier today and so far has been most enthralled with the alphabet soup game.  She was quietly spelling random things at Panera for a good 10 minutes while I got to have an actual conversation with my husband.  I heard her comment “Whoa” to herself in the back seat sometime during the app, so something impressed her!  Maybe I was more blown away then her, but it was really an impressive thing to see.

I paid $4.99 for this app.  This is pretty much the most I have paid for a storybook app, and OMG is it totally worth it!

It is currently in its last stages of development and should be released in March!

The Snow Queen will be available for iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, and Android.