The Land of Me—Storytime

 
 

The Land of Me—Story Time is neither an ebook nor a game. It’s an interactive storytelling app. When the app launches, you are immediately transported into the cave of an ancient tortoise storyteller named Granny Olive. There are no menus or setting to navigate. Just Granny asking who you would like the hero of the story to be. You tap on one of the three characters listening to make them volunteer. Next you are asked what you would like the story to be about. Again, you chose between three icons. Finally, you decide if you want the story to be happy, sad, or funny, by choosing an appropriate mask. Granny Olive then tells a 60-second story with the elements you chose, accompanied by animations that appear as chalk drawings on the cave wall. 

A small return arrow takes you back to Granny’s cave once her story has played out, where the process begins all over as she asks, “Right my dear, who’s our hero this time?” Although this can get repetitive for adults, there are, in fact, 27 different story combinations possible. And I love the way the interaction with the characters teaches about story elements. My five-year-old can—and does—experiment by changing the outcome of the story while holding the other elements constant, or chooses a new character just to see if they each behave exactly the same way in the same situations.

          The magic in this app is in its lushness. The app fills the full screen at all times, with no menus or buttons.  The text is incorporated into the setting. Sound effects like water dripping in the back of the cave add to the atmosphere. Best of all, as short as the stories are, they are complete stories, with a conflict, climax and resolution. And the funny stories are funny; the sad stories are sad; the happy stories happy.

          Land of Me makes two other apps: The Land of Me—Making Things, and The Land of Me—Songs and Rhymes. All three apps feature the same characters and the same sort of interactivity.  Choose a song, style, and tempo for your band (Songs and Rhymes) or a machine and materials for your machine’s body and base (Making Things) for lessons in music and physics. Despite the similar appearance and characters though, neither Making Things nor Songs and Rhymes has the same appeal as Story Time.