The Tales of Panchatantra: The Lion and The Hare Review

The Tales of Panchatantra: The Lion and The Hare is a very nice story book which brings a classic Indian fable to iPad and iPhone. Options include reading to oneself or listening to narration as well as personalizing this book, and it is nice languages include both English as well as Hindi. Be sure to tap around this app looking for hidden sound interactions when reading this book by yourself.

The Panchatantra is a famous series of short stories from India which dates back to the 3rd Century BC. Much like Aesop's fables, these tales are told from the point of view of members of the animal kingdom and include important moral messages. Here, the story of The Lion and the Hare is about a hare sent from his community as a sacrifice to a lion to keep this beast from killing all the animals at once, and how the hare outsmarts the lion in the end. This app contains a story within a story, as this tale is told by a grandfather to his grandchildren as he comes for a visit, bringing a copy of The Panchatantra with him.

As one can imagine, the tone becomes heavy when dealing with the lion endangering the village and the idea of sacrificing an animal for the good of the group. I was a little concerned for my three year old son, who really sat up and took notice during this half of the story. Although my son was fine after this tale and enjoyed it a great deal, sensitive children could possibly feel overwhelmed by these concepts.

I think it is interesting how the style of the first part of this app involving the grandfather coming for a visit and the story itself are different, making this app all the more striking when this storybook switches gears and the fable starts. My son listened quietly throughout the whole app but was noticeably more engaged when the story of the Lion and the Hare began. It is especially nice-looking with bright colors and wonderful illustrations. I also appreciate the ability to find a specific page of this tale with the use of an included index, always a nice touch for a story book app. I did notice, however that after personalizing this app with my son's name, I did not see his name used anywhere in the app itself - something that can maybe worked out in a future update.

I hope that these developers continue to create apps that include stories from the Panchatantra. This collection of fables, commonplace in India, may not be as well-known in other areas of the world. It would be wonderful if more children could be furthur introduced to these tales through this developer's storybook applications.