Your Child Becomes The Star In It's Me! Peter Pan
it's me! Peter Pan (Free) by etribe is filled to the brim with interactivity. Whether you and your child are moving Tinkerbell around the page, titling the iPad to mimic the rocking of a boat, or playing drums Garage Band style with Indians, there’s plenty within this app to do.
At the core, the story is a faithful rendition of the classic Peter Pan. The main feature is that you can take pictures of your child’s face and use them on the iconic character.
This is nothing new, really, for children’s iPad stories. The “Mom, It’s Me!” series is an example. But what is unique is that you have three different facial expressions to use: happy, surprised, and angry.
Peter Pan’s face will change several times throughout the story, making use of each of the facial expressions. You can even decorate the face further with clipart when it comes time to go to Tiger Lily’s party.
No two of the 28 pages are alike. Each one features at least one interactive element, if not more. What’s amazing is how intuitive it is to discover these elements.
My favorite one was where the Lost Boys lob rocks and arrows up in the air, knocking all sorts of animals out of trees.
As if all that wasn’t enough, there are puzzles with different difficulty levels, a couple of different scenes to paint, and an option for recording the story in your own voice.
Options for having the story read are available, such as whether you want the story read to you, auto flipping the pages, and turning off the music.
The only complaint I have about the setup for this book is how the interactive elements one-up the voice over narration. It’s easy to get caught up in touching things to see what they do as the narrator patiently reads. I imagine turning the narrator off would help.
The developers hint at other titles being released soon, including Snow White and Hansel and Gretel. If those stories are anything like this one or better, then there will be a lot of postponed bedtimes for kids.
This app is offered for free, while the paid version at $3.99 offers more interactivity. Regardless, children will enjoy seeing themselves in the role of the boy who never grew up.
