Tag: Zephyr Games »

Lumi’s Book of Eyes is a charming and educational interactive universal storybook app focused on the different eyes found in animals across the world, as well as those of humans.

I really enjoy this book, told from the point of view of Lumi, a Turkish boy who is the narrator and guide of this story. Here, Lumi offers interesting facts about the eyes of a nice selection of animals, such as the use of crocodile tears to help lubricate eyes when this animal spends time on dry land, or the near sidedness of frogs, allowing them to see unclose, great for catching bugs.

The look of this book is also super-cute and a little special, as the simple, hand drawings of Lumi are juxtaposed with some very vivid animal photos. Tapping these animals will cause them to blink, and do tap Lumi as well, and some simple but lovely animations are included of Lumi reacting to the various facts presented.

This app also touches on the health of human eyes, the need for kids to have their eyes checked before the 1st grade and a positive message about kids wearing glasses. This is a cute and fun app for children in general but will be of a special interest for those who wear glasses themselves or are going soon for their first eye exam, something important for all school-age children. Very nice narration and music are included which I have really enjoyed. The narration can be easily tuned off as well if one chooses.

An eye-spy game of sorts is also included here as well, as the player is given a close-up photo of an object in the shape of a circle, and one must decide if the image in question is an eye or not. This is a really fun game that kids and adults will really enjoy, as different eyes are included here, as well as other objects such as the spots from a butterfly back or even Earth as seen from space.

Given family history, I won’t be surprised if at some point our son needs glasses as his entire family wear them. He may be in his 30’s before he needs them like my husband and me, or still in grade school like another close family member, but either way, this is a thoughtful educational app originally written by an ophthalmologist and is aimed at an international audience. Lumi’s Book of Eyes will also be a hit with animal lovers as the information is interesting, and the photographs are of a really great quality, making this storybook one that is very easy to recommend.

Kiwi and Pear's World Adventure is a really sweet and fun geography-themed app for the iPhone which includes a storybook as well as three mini games.

I really enjoy that there is a storybook included in this app about two adorable monkeys and their transcontinental adventure. The story is both cute as well as educational, introducing basic facts about the different places they visit. I love the places the developers chose to include, like Niagara Falls, the Autoban, and the Great Wall of China. Hidden interactions are also included which my son has had a lot of fun with, and I was pleased to see how many of them further this experience, such as flash bulbs going off in Fenway Park, the ringing of Big Ben, and the falling of cherry blossoms in Japan. I also really like the basic look of this storybook; the colors are bright and plentiful. Details include a lovely sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge and the grandeur of the Amazon jungle. Adults will appreciate some of the elements which may remind them of 1980’s pop culture, such as puffy rainbows coming out from the monkey’s airplane and animals reminiscent of Mrs Grossman's stickers.

There are also three mini games included. Fruit Catch involves the catching of fruit falling from the sky in the Amazon. I am glad that the controls involve the movement of a finger back and forth in the guide instead of the tilting of the iPhone, making this game easier for the target audience of four year olds. There is also a game based on a classic game of memory involving the turning over of cards to find matches.

The World Map game is a game also geography bases and includes the places visited in the story. Search the map for the areas of the world which correspond to the hints given. Dots are included on the map of the places to choose from, but this game is not easy because many of the questions asked here are of places not mentioned in the book which may be hard to find for children, such as Easter Island. I wish after one or two wrong answers, the correct answer would be highlighted so one can learn the places not already known. It would also be nice to zoom the map in and out so more areas of the world map could be seen at once. All in all, a lovely app kids will enjoy.