Wordless picture books? That would be ‘pictures’ then, surely? But a new iPad app called Imagistory aims to be more than a collection of images.
Aimed at 3-6 year-olds, it was released for iPad this weekend by a New Zealand-based company called Imagistory. This is its first app for children.
The idea is simple: you and your child flip through a succession of pictures from a certain story, and the iPad’s microphone records what you say – generating a recording of the pair of you (or your child alone, as they get more used to the app) telling the story.
These recordings can be saved and played back at any time after that. In its initial form as a free app, Imagistory comes with one tale – The Red Bucket – which is about a girl who visits the beach and loses her bucket in the sea, going on an adventure to get it back.
The recording process is certainly easy: all you or your child has to do is talk while flipping the pages, as the recording happens automatically (signified by a blinking red light in the bottom corner of the screen).
Imagistory explains more about its ambitions within the parents’ section of the app. “Why have words at all? Why not design a picture book where it’s the child’s turn to tell the story, where they are free to tell it in their own unique way using their creativity and imagination?” it says.
“A picture book that inspires anyone to be the storyteller, no matter what their age or language. So we did!”
The catch, for now, is that there’s only one story to tell. Imagistory says it has “many exciting new books in development” from a range of illustrators that it’s working with. We’re guessing at some point, it may introduce in-app purchases or a subscription to pay for these.
Imagistory tried to raise money on crowdfunding site Kickstarter last year, but narrowly missed its target (that’s its pitch video embedded above). We’re glad that the company has pressed on with the app anyway, as it looks like it has potential.
Children recording their own voices to tell a story isn’t a brand new feature for kid-apps. It’s one of the best bits of Me Books, for example, as well as a key feature in InfiniScroll. The various Dr. Seuss apps also feature an option for children to re-record the dialogue and share it with friends and family.
We’re looking forward to seeing how Imagistory develops using these ideas – the sharing aspect is mentioned in its Kickstarter video, so that could be fun.
For now, Imagistory is a free download for iPad from Apple’s App Store.
Read about more iPad story apps for kids on Apps Playground, and check out our 100 Best iPad Apps of 2013 e-book – £1.99 from Apple’s iBooks Store