Teddy’s Day
Teddy’s Day is one of the first stories we ever downloaded on the iPad, and it is still a firm favourite. Released in 2010, it does a fantastic job of that fiendishly difficult thing – turning an existing book into an app. It is based on the original picture book What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Day? by Bruno Hächler and Birte Müller, published by Minedition (2004).
So what does my teddy bear do all day while I’m at school? That has to be one of the classic questions asked by every child at some point! The search for answers is magically brought to life here, as the little girl in the story decides to stay at home to spy on her teddy and find out. She imagines what he might do, and tries to catch him out with different activities throughout the day, but will she finally make him break cover with her secret weapon – a jar of honey?
The rhyming story is fun and has a great refrain to join in with – “You wait – I’m gonna catch you!” The relationship between the girl and her teddy is really well captured too, and despite any real expression on Teddy’s face you definitely get the impression he is trying to give her the slip! There are some excellent cameos from a pair of mice and the girl’s doll, adding more humour.
There are so many fun ways to interact with the story, and what impresses me most is the variety. You can paint a picture which ends up shown on the wall (can you spot Harry Potter in ours, above?) or you can do a puzzle on the floor (actually in the scene, rather than separate as in most apps.) You can spy on Teddy through a keyhole or from outside the house with binoculars. You can wipe away the paint Teddy has splattered on the wall to reveal different pictures. Our absolute favourite is playing hide and seek with Teddy in the kitchen. He just keeps popping up over THERE, BEHIND you! No, THERE!
If you’d like to see a little more of the app, you can take a look at the trailer here:
There is also a sequel called Teddy’s Night which somehow we have never quite got around to downloading, but perhaps we should – after all… what DO teddies do when you are asleep at night?
Teddy’s Day, developed by Auryn, compatible with iPad. Available from https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/auryn-hd-teddys-day/id400989528?mt=8 priced at £2.49/US$ 3.99 at time of writing.