The King's Ears

The King’s Ears is an inventive, beautifully illustrated, animation-rich, and highly interactive story app adapted from an award-winning children’s picturebook. It is narrated by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame and illustrated by Philippe Béhà, a lauded children’s book illustrator of over 170 books. The story, based on the ancient Greek myth of King Midas, has been retold for a modern audience by poet and early childhood specialist Katarina Jovanovic. Shining with wisdom and wit, The King’s Ears is about accepting yourself just the way you are. The app’s meaningful and fun interactions, rich sounds, and child-controlled animations stimulate thoughtful discussion.

“Brilliantly executed and hilarious!” Michael Katz, publisher, Tradewind Books

“A beautifully rendered app. The King’s Ears stands out for its attention to detail and meaningful interactivity through clever, playful animations. The sound design is outstanding. My 6 year-old daughter and I love exploring The King’s Ears together; we find something new every time." Dr. Eric Meyers, Chair, Master of Arts in Children’s Literature, UBC

"The King's Ears offers children both an enjoyable experience and a narrative challenge that will stretch their thinking.  This app takes exciting risks with new forms of storytelling and invites re-reading, which is certainly an important testimonial to its effectiveness. I'm blown away by the production values." Professor Margaret Mackey, author of "Playing the Text: Literacies across Media"

“I am so in love with this gorgeous app!” Aline Frederico, PhD Candidate specializing in story apps, Cambridge University

“An exciting story app with strong narrative verve, and subtle and humorous interactions of art, text, and technology.” Professor Judith Saltman, co-author of "Picturing Canada: A History of Canadian Children’s Illustrated Books and Publishing"

“This innovative and insightful retelling of an ancient tale invites children to playfully experience complex reading processes including imaging, questioning, inferencing, predicting and confirming.” Dr Marlene Asselin, Associate professor of Language and Literacy Education

Features:

- rich, layered story about self-image and acceptance told through integral sounds, animations and interactions which will stimulate discussion and repay repeat visits
- narration by the great comic actor, author, and director Terry Jones
- testing showed that children start smiling and moving as soon as they hear the theme music by composer, Skip Peck
- classroom testing showed that The King’s Ears engaged children of all reading levels, including those with reading challenges
- child-controlled animation, sounds, and narration are interrelated with the words and pictures, creating a multimodal reading experience
- judicious use of hinting makes room for close examination, puzzling, and reflection, characteristic of how children read illustrated stories
- tap, swipe, pinch, and drag gestures
- practice hair-cutting on a cat, hair styling and accessorizing a pig, funny hairstyles for the king and the bird
- help Igor let go of a secret with exploding letters; drag them to spell words
- make a magic reed flute, and play and record tunes with it.
- egg-breaking game
- drag the bird to hop and fly through the story
- interactions about social interaction and expressing feelings will be helpful for children with autism spectrum disorders
- Embody and change the emotional states of characters through interactions

Age: A story to be enjoyed by age 5 to adult. Independent reading of text suited to grades 2 and up to play alone or in small groups. Perfect for shared or co-reading.

Rascal Media founder and play designer, Cynthia Nugent, is a children's book author/illustrator of award-winning books that children, parents, educators, and librarians love. Her research in picturebook scholarship, story apps, and early literacy for her MA in Children’s Literature guided the design of The King’s Ears.