Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to the App Store the famous fairytale goes, with the latest app from a children’s publisher that prioritises reading over digital gimmicks

I want my children to love stories. To love reading tales of all kinds, and to enjoy creating their own worlds and characters – or at least their own stories using the worlds and characters that they already love.

I’m not particularly biased one way or the other about where the inspiration for this comes from – and particularly whether it’s printed books or digital experiences. Or, more accurately, I think both can play a hugely important role as my two sons learn not just to read and write, but to love to read and write.

It’s why together we’ve ploughed through the increasingly dog-eared back catalogues of Roald Dahl, Dr Seuss and Spike Milligan; why we’ve spent a fair few bedtimes making up our own stories and limericks; and why my seven year-old is working on an entirely-unlicensed series of Horrible Histories spin-offs, held together by staples.

And it’s also why we use apps. And if this sounds like a defensive introduction to a subject that often provokes “children should be reading BOOKS not TOUCHING SCREENS” reactions, you’d be right: the apps being made by British publisher Nosy Crow and some of its peers are up there with Dahl in getting children sparkly-eyed about storytelling.

The company’s latest is Snow White, following previous app reworkings of Three Little Pigs, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk. Released this week for iOS, it tells a familiar story in a beguiling new way that never prioritises digital gimmickry over reading and storytelling.

There are two modes: Read and Play for younger children, and Read by Myself for older kids who are developing their reading skills. As always for this company, the voice narration comes from children – a calculated decision based on the belief that what fascinates many kids more than anything else is slightly older kids.

The story is told over a succession of animated scenes, with speech bubbles and words highlighted in red as they’re spoken, so that children can follow along. There are simple interactive tasks too, such as dunking washing, picking flowers, tidying up the seven dwarves’ house and mixing a potion for the wicked queen.

The app also uses the features of your device: rocking the iPad to send baby Snow White to sleep in one scene, for example, or using the front camera to show children their own faces in the magic mirror. In every scene, once the initial bit of story has been delivered, characters can be tapped on to read and hear more dialogue.

The illustrations, by the way, are beautifully-crafted – Nosy Crow’s Ed Bryan is one of my favourite current children’s illustrators in any medium, and it’s no surprise that the company’s traditional publishing arm is turning his previous app work into printed books.

The classical soundtrack fits perfectly too, complete with a final flourish where children tap notes to switch the dancing Snow White and her prince into samba and Irish jig – something they and their parents may remember from the Cinderella app.

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Snow White is a very familiar story, but this is a fine reworking of it for devices that – for some children – are an important complement to books as they develop their reading skills.

My five year-old son is sometimes hesitant about reading aloud from books, since he’s still building his confidence. Seeing him mouthing along to Snow White, and then seeing how that translates into increased willingness to read books, has made me realise how these different types of reading can work together, not compete.

The cloud on the horizon is that it’s quite expensive to make apps like Snow White, and a lot of book publishers – even the biggest ones – are reining in their app ambitions after sales often didn’t match up to the costs involved in well-crafted digital storytelling.

I’m glad Nosy Crow is still plugging away, and I hope Snow White finds an audience to make it worthwhile. The battle isn’t about apps versus books, but about reading and loving storytelling versus not reading and not getting the chance to love storytelling. This app sits firmly in the former camp.

• Snow White by Nosy Crow costs £3.99 for iOS

