Witchemina - Interactive Children’s Story Review

Witchemina - Interactive Children’s Story is a wonderful tale for children that adults will also enjoy. Listen to this story with narration or read this story by oneself. Interactions are also included as are achievements and puzzles as well.

My son and I have thoroughly enjoyed this story about a young witch, Witchemina, who is different from her typical witchy sisters. Instead of casting dark spells, Witchemina is a nice witch who prefers to spend her time gardening but has great difficulty growing beautiful plants in her present environment. I honestly was not expecting this tale to be so affecting to my son and me, but this interesting and lengthy plot, combined with spot-on music, creates an experience that is surprisingly moving and even a little sad at times - in a good way - that will be appropriate for children and appreciated by adults.

The look of this app is also quite nice, and the illustrations are well done, especially the drawings used to create a unique-looking character that is Witchemina, perfect in her ordinariness, and I appreciate both the muted palette of earth colors used to create this gloomy environment in which Witchemina lives as well as the greener, more colorful artwork incorporated when Witchemina explores the world outside her home, looking for a place best to grow her special seed.

This is primarily an illustrated storybook, with some animations included as well. I really enjoyed the scene where Witchemina plants the special seed she is trying to grow, and the colorful confetti-like magic coming from her wand have a nice contrast to the palette used within this story, popping nicely within these pages, as do some of the other effects. I am not a fan, however, of looking for and finding the included achievements. I found this element distracting, taking me out of the melancholy mode this app so wonderfully had created.

While I am not typically a fan of these types of achievements in storybooks, if included, I would also appreciate some kind of hints offered so that the reader is not left dangling. It is nice that from the home page, one can tap to find a key to the achievements that one has found and what one is still looking for, with subtle clues being given, both with words and images, but I would also like to see help offered among the pages of this story. It is nice, however that one can choose to re-set - or not - the found interactions as this information is saved from one reading of this book to another.

Past the achievements, some interactions are also included, although the amount here is modest and the interactions themselves are mild. This application is easy to recommend based on the wonderful, creative story told here with some nuances that remind me of Roald Dahl - high praise to say the least, but I think parents who buy this app based primarily on the promise of interactions may be disappointed.

This is a story my son and I will enjoy re-reading often, but probably will not spend much time interacting with. This is not meant as any kind of insult, as my boy is exposed to many highly interactive apps, and he, in a slightly jaded manner, really appreciates simply enjoying a terrific tale just by using his eyes and ears, much like an experience with a traditional book without being distracted.

Puzzles are included which are always a nice feature, but I wish when a piece was added correctly, an audible “click” could be heard, not just when picked up and moved, but also allowing kids to know when a piece is in the right place. Some nice depth can be seen on the edges of these pieces, making them look like an authentic jigsaw, but the lining of these pieces can be unforgiving and difficult to use without any “grab” offered as one connects puzzle pieces - an element taken for granted in other puzzle apps that may not be noticed until not included and then missed a great deal. Having said this, my son has enjoyed this story very much and has also spend time on these puzzles with no specific complaints, but he did ask for more help than he typically needs in other puzzle applications.

I hope not to have come across too harshly on my criticism of the interactive aspects of this book. The storyline, included music and the general mood created here is well worth a purchase. I have enjoyed the storybook aspect of this app a great deal and so has my son. I can see this story becoming a long-time family favorite of ours, and for this reason I highly recommend this app.