This week in children's apps features an opera-loving hippo named Hildegard in a game that lets players help her get her voice back through games and activities. Also this week is an app based on the picture book The Heart and the Bottle, formerly a bestselling app in the U.K., and now featuring the voice of Helena Bonham Carter in the U.S. version. Last is the app based on the children's book about a boy and what happens when he orders a model car.
Title: Hildegard Sings
Publisher: One Hundred Robots
Release date: June 23, 2011
Price: $1.99
Background: Hildegard Rhineheffer is a hippo who dreams of being an opera star. When she gets her big break and lands the lead in the upcoming opera, she suddenly loses her voice. Players help Hildegard become a diva and overcome stage fright so she can become the star she was always meant to be.
Features: Feed Hildegard a feast, help her try on silly hats, or pop the bubbles in her bath. The game features watercolor illustrations and twenty-eight interactive pages. Includes a matching game, spoofs of famous opera classics like Madame Butterfly, opera glossary, and a navigation map. Read to me or read to myself options.
Title: The Heart and the Bottle
Publisher: Pearson PLC
Release date: June 28, 2011
Price: $4.99
Background: Previously App of the Week in the U.K., The Heart and the Bottle comes to the U.S. featuring the voice of Helena Bonham Carter. The app is based on Oliver Jeffers's award-winning picture book, which tells the story of a girl "whose life was filled with all the wonder of the world around her. Then one day something occured that caused the girl to take her heart and put it in a safe place..."
Features: Press a "Hints" button at the top of each page to find interactions, press the "Audio" icon at the top of each page to hear the book read by Helena Bonham Carter, grow flowers with the touchscreen, shake the device to change weather, draw a line in the sand and paint a picture, change day to night with the swipe of a finger.
Title: Edsel McFarlan's New Car
Publisher: Auryn, Inc.
Release date: June 13, 2011
Price: $0.99
Background: Based on the children's book Edsel McFarlan's New Car by Max Holechek, illustrated by Darrell Toland, this app follows a boy who orders a model car.
Features: Thirty-one illustrated pages, professional narration including the ability to touch a word and hear it being spoken, image and word association vocabulary builder. Three ways to play: Read to Me, Auto Play, and Read Myself.
