I am firmly, devotedly a reader and lover of printed books, and Molly seems to be following right along. Not that she doesn't love the computer and my iPhone and TV - she totally does - but she LOVES printed books. However she also loves audiobooks, and has started to develop a taste for some of the ones available for the iPhone that read the book to you while moving through a series of pictures. That of course has led to our downloading some book-related apps--and because she is also a hardcore FANCY NANCY fan (what pink-loving girl isn't?), when I saw the FANCY NANCY DRESS UP app in the App Store, I knew I had to download it for her.
It's a TON of fun for 99 cents!
You start out with Nancy's wardrobe (which you can see in the screenshot). When you click on an item of clothing or accessory, you are taken to several choices in that category. Click on the specific item that you want, and ding! It's on Nancy. The more outrageously you dress her, the more she urges you on. You can really pile the stuff on and make her look ridiculous. Molly thinks this is HILARIOUS.
(You can also touch a little palette icon and ding! Nancy is dressed fancily for you - but it's much more
fun to do it yourself.)
Then you can place Nancy into one of many different backgrounds. And here's Molly's favorite part: there are all these "stickers" (little things like apples and puppies and room decor) that you can move onto the various backgrounds so you can decorate with them. She likes to absolutely cover the screen with these stickers, which is no small surprise as she also likes to cover our house with her cra--er, treasures.
THEN you can save your pages, and insert them into a little interactive storybook.
HarperCollins has done an amazing job with the Fancy Nancy licensing. As far as I can tell, there isn't any...well, garbage. Games and puzzles; dolls and costumes; and all from the best companies. Molly would love a Fancy Nancy TV show, and if done well (Charlie and Lola is the gold standard for me) I think it could be really wonderful. I hate the overmerchandising of certain characters but Nancy has been rolled out slowly and so well. This app is just the latest in a long string of terrific, thoughtful decisions, and I think it's one of my favorites to date. And Molly - the target audience - would absolutely agree.
