Love

I had to get this ebook for Brooklyn, based on the title alone. Brooklyn routinely names her Barbie dolls things like "Heart Love." And then when Digital Storytime gave Love such a rave review, my curiosity was piqued. The publishers, Nino Studios, were nice enough to give us a free review copy for this blog. So the girls and I eagerly sat down to read Love together. And it was like no other ebook we had ever read.

Love, the book, is by an Italian author, Gian Berto Vanni. It was first published in the US in 1964.  Love, the app, maintains the original's look and style. The texture of the screen will fool you into thinking you might actually get paper cuts swiping to advance the story. Every page is full of peepholes and collage elements. The book itself is gorgeous; the best part though, is that the app developers have gone out of their way to do justice to this beautiful story book. Instead of a traditional ebook, they have created something less linear. It is not always obvious where to swipe, or where the words will next appear. Pages don't so much as turn, as fall away, or peel back piece by piece. There is stop motion animation and ambient music throughout. Here is a one-minute video trailer that gives the feel of the music and animation:

The story is dark and twisty. It feels, frankly, like it was written in another time/place (e.g., Europe in the 1960s?). The basic story is this: A little girl who is described as "not so pretty" loses her parents at age nine. She goes to live in an orphanage where she is unloved. She acts out and gets in trouble. In the end, however, she communes with nature and finds a way to connect with the people around her. The story is sparse and somewhat shocking to modern sensibilities; especially since a happy ending is not spelled out for our protagonist. As sensitive as she sometimes is though, Brooklyn took it in stride. We both were somewhat surprised that the book ended when it did. One of the problems with innovative interactive storybook apps like this one is that the reader has no sense of length. Had we been reading the print book, we would have known we were on the last page.

There is no "read-to-me" narration available with this ebook, but that is okay. This is a book better suited to older readers. Brooklyn and I enjoyed it together. Although Autumn initially sat down with us, she quickly wandered away. Read it with your children, or give it to children old enough to read it themselves. One thing I wish the app did have was a way to navigate through to a certain part a little bit more quickly... It is maddening to try to re-read a particular page in the middle of the book without a page guide to let you jump in to the middle. But that minor quibble aside, this is a beautiful, well-constructed and thought provoking ebook that I expect my kids to grow into.