Pip and Posy: Fun and Games Review

Pip and Posy: Fun and Games is a universal app that brings the characters Pip, Posy and friends to life as the illustrations from this series, created by the highly regarded children’s illustrator and author, Axel Scheffler, are used within a collection of delightful children’s games and activities.

A collection of spot-the-difference is included where one must locate the different objects that are either missing or different on two similar illustrations. I enjoy how children can tap either side of these drawings to mark a difference and how this section contains a nice level of difficulty that preschool children and up will appreciate. Younger children will enjoy the wonderful illustrations of expressive animal characters, possibly needing some help from an adult or older sibling to complete these puzzles.

I really enjoy this section, as I do the upbeat children’s encouragement found throughout this app in general, much like the narration of Nosy Crows storybook applications that makes this “spot the difference” and the other areas of this app charming. It would be nice, however, if a “hint” button were included for those children who could use some extra help.

A coloring book area is included, containing seven pictures to color in and one blank page to draw freehand. Here, children color in these pages with a “paintbrush” style of painting as one uses a finger to paint with the drag of a finger, as well as emulating the use of a pencil point and crayon tip, not only affecting the line size but also texture as the pencil point draws a crisp thin and sharp line, while the paint brush creates a slightly more airbrushed, feathered edge to this line which is slightly thicker than of the pencil. I also like how the crayon tip produces a thicker, less opaque shade with a light touch, blending nicely with other colors the same way or creating a denser color if one colors over the same area. Six bright color choices are included, as is an eraser.

I appreciate how the progress in painting of these images is saved as the images to be colored contain a lovely amount of details to be filled in, and I can imagine children wanting to come back to their work after visiting other sections or at a later time. It would be nice, especially within the iPhone application, if a way of zooming in to color details were possible.

Matching Pairs is nice “memory” style game where players flip over cards in order to create pairs. Three levels are offered with the number of cards in play varying from eight to eighteen. It is nice to play this game without any type of time or score being kept, and the images found when players flip these cards over are cute and fun as well.

Jigsaw Jam is a lovely collection of jigsaw puzzles children can work on. These puzzles range from six to eight pieces that need to be dragged and dropped into their correct spots within their puzzle. I like how a reference picture is offered that is separate from the background one is working on, creating a very realistic puzzle experience, as does the subtle yet satisfying “click” of these pieces when they are correctly placed within the puzzle, also including a sense of “grab” as the pieces are slightly drawn to their correct spot if brought close - a detail that may not be missed until one works with a puzzle application without this element and then understands how important this element really is.

Users with a device containing a forward-facing camera will also enjoy the Make a Face area of this application as players get to create a face within a mirror that corresponds to the expression of a character expressing emotion, be it surprise, happiness, or a fun monster face.

This is a great section as I often admire the look of the expressive characters found in Scheffler’s illustrations in such books as The Gruffalo, and it is great fun to mimic these terrific characters from within this app. Recently, after re-downloading this app I was successful at getting the included photo saving function to work for me, a nice inclusion I am glad to have access to.

Rest assured that families not familiar with Axel Scheffler will be equally fond of this application. These illustrations may encourage one to check out Scheffler's work, as his style of illustration is simply wonderful. I also have enjoyed the music found within this app, utterly Nosy Crow, making me curious as to when another one of their interactive storybooks will be released.