The Emperor’s New Clothes - A Kidztory Classic animated interactive storybook Review

The Emperor’s New Clothes is the eleventh title in the impressive library of classic Kidztory applications from the developers at Stepworks. I am huge fan of these wonderful interactive storybooks from their very first release, The Little Red Hen, as it was the first story app I bought for my son. This latest addition, like the others, has options which include listening to
included narration or reading this book to oneself. Do tap on the characters to hear noises as well as to search the screen for interactive hotspots.

I have always been a fan of Hans Christian Andersen from a very young age, and I am glad that Kidztory has begun to adapt these classic stories for their creative and fun interactive storybooks.

The Emperor's New Clothes is a favorite story of mine, here, about con men who pretend to sew the finest clothing, also to be used as a gage for cleverness, as the clothing will look as ornate as the gazer is clever. Not wanting to be thought of as dim, the king, all his servants and even the community at large all keep quiet about not seeing any fabric or clothes until a child who is not concerned about what people think, announces that there is no clothing at all. I love the way the child at the end of this tale tells the group of people looking at the king's “new clothes” exactly the way he sees it. I always get a kick out of this ending as I was the type of precocious kid who would have told the truth just like this little boy.

Often in many classic Kidztory tales the characters are used throughout many books, and although I love seeing familiar faces from other stories, I was also excited to see all new faces in this tale, with the possible exception of the boy at the end who may have starred in The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The illustrations, sometimes with animated effects, are marvelous - exactly what I would expect from the developers at Stepworks.

These classic stories are narrated by a young girl, and it has been a pleasure to see her storytelling skills increase as she gets older. Her re-telling of this classic tale is very good here, and you can hear in her voice her enjoyment of the story as she tells the story. I have also enjoyed tapping to hear the characters “talk,” and although they do not speak specific words, the noises they do make speak volumes in terms of expressions - something I have really enjoyed from this series.

I am always curious to see how the illustrations are going to work with the idea of a naked king parading around with no clothing. I love the choice here for his fittings to be in long underwear, covered in the cute icon for another Stepworks app, Kidzongs. For the parade, the king is naked as the grifter "tailors" made fake undergarments for him as well. I really enjoy how they hide the king's private area in the front, strategically positioning other objects in the foreground. To me, it is super-cute that the king’s bare bottom is shown from behind. I make note of this as I think this is really clever and fun, but I can imagine other parents thinking that this is too much information for their child. It is also of note that the grifters are knows as the "skinny" one and the "tubby" one, something I did not take offense to but could conceivably bother people who don't like making attention of people's weight.

All the Kidztory classics end with a gentle moral that children can learn from. Here, the message is about materialism. Parents will also be able to talk about being true to oneself, honesty, and confidence - which is the way I am using this story with my son. I look forward to future Kidztory apps. They are all extremely well done.