Henry, you're late AGAIN! Review

Henry, you're late AGAIN! is a cute universal storybook that children, especially of grade school age, may appreciate, based on the published book of the same name.

Henry is a boy who is always late to school through no fault of his own as his family in general has issues with time management, much to Henry's frustration as well as the frustration of his nemesis, Miss Timberlane, the school secretary who needs to fill out his late slips.

Things take a turn for the worse as Henry is dropped off at school on a teacher work day that students are not attending, yet in this more laid back setting, much to Henry’s pleasant surprise, Miss Timberlane is not exacerbated by this mistake and is really quite kind.

I enjoy the stream of consciousness style as we see the world from Henry’s point-of-view, complete with moments of interesting mythology about Miss Timberlane as Henry wonders such things as what kinds of feet she has (human or dog) as they can’t be seen behind her large desk, if she “owns” a baby of her own or sleeps at school. I also appreciate how Henry’s perception of Miss Timberlane is altered when their interaction is on a different level for the first time, creating a character in Miss Timberlane that is multidimensional - something that I always enjoy within a story.

The illustrations are fun and include some very subtle animated and audio hotspots, but the main focus here is storytelling. Narration is included, and it is nice that a child’s voice, presumably Henry himself, or that of author Mary Evanson Bleckwehl can be chosen. I really like the sound of both these narrator's voices, especially Henry who brings a lot of earnest emotion to this fun tale, and I enjoy how the concept of “patience” is gently introduced within this story.

The actual audio production value is a little rough though, although I don’t think children may pick up on this as easily as I do. I have also noticed that the image quality, although the illustrations are really a lot of fun, are not quite as high a resolution with iPhone or iPad - something I hope can be worked out soon.

Even with these notes, I have had a lot of fun with this storybook. The style of writing, slightly lengthy, descriptive and quirky at times really brings Henry and his experiences to life for me and makes him an utterly real person - something not easy to do, and for this reason I recommend this application.