Monday, March 11, 2013

Green book review: Gro Book - The adventures of Sophie the sweater


Today we'd like to introduce you with a children's book that is basically an innovative "choose-your-own-adventure" book app for kids that can be read in 24 different ways. The underlying theme in the story is no other than Reuse.


Our book for today is 
Gro Book - The Adventures of Sophie the Sweater

What this book is about?

Gro Book - “The adventures of Sophie the sweater puts the child in charge of this captivating and moving story. The book can be read, or listened to, in 24 different ways, and has an underlying eco-educational theme. Get to know Sophie - a sweater that is longing for someone to need and love her. Along the way, the reader decides the direction of story, which affects Sophie’s shape, use, and mood!

Sophie the sweater is feeling abandoned on her hanger in a clothing store. Nobody seems to want to take her home. One day a certain someone comes in to the store and the great adventure begins. Sophie goes on lots of adventures - even scary ones - where she is created into new things such as a vest, a pair of pants, and even a bird’s nest, just to mention a few. The underlying theme of the book is ”consumption and reuse”. By reading the story of Sophie the sweater we hope to inspire you and your child to take extra good care of the many things that are already around you. Get inspired and use the creative tips on how you can be creative and reuse stuff at home.

“Gro really seizes the opportunity to early give children a foundation for learning about sustainability.", says Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, World president of OMEP and UNESCO Chair man in Early Childhood Education and Sustainable Development.

Features:
- 24 engaging storylines
- Over 100 handmade illustrations
- Delightfully narrated
- Environmental theme: reuse
- Kid-friendly interface
- No third-party advertising
- No in-app purchases




Our review:

The Gro Book – An APP Since I had the opportunity to review this app I decided to check out both the FREE App and the FULL App. This is a “Choose Your Own Course” type of book, meaning that as you make your way through the story, you get to decide where you want it to go by choosing from several options at certain points in the book. In this story, you get to follow along with a sweater as she makes her way through her life. The good choices and the not so good ones depending on which way you go. I have to say it was a very cute idea. The narrator had a nice friendly voice that worked well in engaging the “reader” or the “listener”. The choices were silly and fun. The book was not in any way standard in your choices either, which is what made it so entertaining. One thing that I think they could have done better is that some of the pages seemed a bit too long. There were times that my brain began to wander while the narrator seemed to go on and on. All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As to the difference between the free app and the full version? The free app had fewer options to choose from and did not complete the story. The full version had a complete story with several more options available. My suggestion would be to try out the free version and if you like what you see and if you think your child would enjoy it, then you have to get the full version. It was truly worth it.


"Gro Book - The Adventures of Sophie the Sweater" on AppStore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gro-book/id594674205?mt=8

Yours,