The Heart and the Bottle for iPad Review

The Heart and the Bottle is a beautiful interactive story book based on the book of the same name by Irish-born writer, illustrator and artist Oliver Jeffers. Although this is primarily an interactive picture book, the heavy themes of death and grief will appeal to older children and adults possibly more than to the preschool set.

I love this book. The Jeffers illustrations are beautiful, wonderfully capturing the imagination of a young child, as is the pitch-perfect narration by Helena Bonham Carter.

This book begins with simple prose in the first pages of this app, explaining the varied interests of the main character in this story - a curious young girl who enjoys listening to stories and going on adventures such as exploring the stars at night or swimming in the ocean. Always by her side is a man who one assumes is her grandfather, and it marvelous how their bond is shown amongst these pages. The beginning of this story expresses their relationship in such a tender way that is in itself poetic.

This girl's lovely life comes to a standstill one day, as she finds an empty chair - her grandfather's chair, representing his death. Do use a swiping motion with a finger to uncover this image also happening hours later as the sun has gone down, and this poor child is still staring at this empty chair, an interaction I found most powerful.

It is from this point on that the girl removes her heart and puts it in a bottle, worn around her neck to keep it safe. Within her grief, she stops seeing the wonders around her that used to give her so much joy. Time goes on and this girl begins to grow into a young woman who comes across a child once who is also very curious about things, and this young woman now would like her heart back to be able to help this child explore the world as well, but getting her heart out of the bottle is no easy task.

I have seen many interactive books, but this one has a special place in my heart as these interactive effects bring both richness to the story by introducing charming details to the adventures with the grandfather, but it also propels the narrative in a most creative way, such as when the girl, now older, meets the child whose imagination is so affecting. Here, the young child’s intriguing question shown only in an illustration uncovered with the circling of a finger tip that uncovers an image of an elephant swimming in the ocean.

It is great to see that a hint button is offered to show with a series of arrows and the like how to uncover these hidden hotspots - quite necessary for this clever story and an addition that I wish were found in every interactive app available.

I do delight in the oddity of this story here, as the removal of one’s heart is quite literal, although not in any way gory or graphic. Interactions look at the inside of this child via x-ray and then place the heart in the bottle where it resides for a long time. This heart may bounce around using the accelerometer, and there are some intriguing scenes on how one may want to remove the heart from this bottle, including a great moment where this girl uses power tools with no such luck. I do love the end of this story and the final, simple method of heart removal which made me smile. This delightful, thoughtful and sometimes sad app ends with the girl, now older, reading in her grandfather’s chair that is no longer remains empty. Do tap on the grand bubble over her head that represents her thoughts, filling it with treasures she now contemplates.

I found these words and images to express death and grief very powerful to say the least, and although I highly recommend this book for children and their families, I did not read this story to my son as I avoid things that I know will make him feel melancholy, so I do think parents need to choose wisely when deciding if their child is ready for this story, and I do look forward to sharing this story with my boy when he is older.

Undeniably a very special story, I sincerely hope Penguin Group turns more of Jerrers picture books into interactive apps. I am going to seek out other Jerrers picture books myself, but I am so impressed with how these interactions added depth to this story I would love to see these books developed into apps as well.