Adventures in the Forest app review: a nice story with a message to teach your children

Introduction

It’s getting harder and harder for me to review books that are disguised as apps in the App Store. On the one side, I love books and I love reading them, but I believe that they should be in the iBooks app instead of the App Store. On the other side, books for children and interactive novels are not supported by the iBooks app, making it hard for these to be published anywhere else but the App Store. The book I’m reviewing today is one of these books that probably would not have been able to be published in iBooks, but does Adventures in the Forest by Panagiotis Papantonopoulos (a name I am never going to type again) live up to the expectations of being in the App Store? This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad.

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What it Offers

When you boot up the app, you instantly start with the story. There is no in-app shop, no advertising, nor any other screen before you start; you begin at the first page of the book. I would have at least expected a title page or something, but the first page simply is that, filled with text. Since this is a children’s book, there of course are a lot of colorful drawings as well. If you press the sound button in the bottom, the text will be read to you. This looks like a mute button, so it took me a while to figure this out. You simply swipe the pages from right to left to progress in the story.

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The Message and Interactivity

The message that I mentioned in the title of the review is simple. It’s an environmental message and shows the effects that people can and will have on nature. Another thing that I found weird about the app is that there is no interactivity whatsoever. There is absolutely no added value to this book compared to a normal physical book you might have at home. This is such a missed opportunity, making the app really not stand out in the App Store at all.

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• It’s completely free
• No ads
• Nice drawings
• Great message

 

Cons

• No interactivity whatsoever
• No start screen or title page

 

Conclusion

In the end, this is a book that should have gone to print to be sold at your local book store in the kids' section. The book is illustrated and written well, but offers no interactivity whatsoever, nor are the pages animated. The sound of the app is decent, but comes nowhere close to other book apps. The good thing is that the app is free and doesn’t have any ads to bother you while you or your child is enjoying the story. The app is designed for both iPad and iPhone and is just under 60 MB.