Overview
Drawing from actual events in Van Gogh's life, Laurence Anholt's book weaves a story about how a little boy named Camille befriends the artist. Camille and his family appeared in paintings created by Van Gogh.
This interactive story reveals how, although Van Gogh painted vibrant paintings of the village people and its surroundings, the townspeople of Camille's village thought the painter was odd and ostracized him. But Camille and his family accepted Van Gogh and saw the genius of his work.
Puzzles Within the Story
The book contains 19 puzzles which kids play to bring the characters within the book to life. By tapping illustrations of characters, kids can activate a mode that lets them see the gears and mechanisms that would make the character move. By tapping again on the character, the mechanisms spring apart so that kids can connect them once again. When they do, the character will now appear to animate in the story.
Re-Paint the Illustrations
Kids can also use simple art tools to repaint the characters so that they appear on the pages how they would like them to look.
Best For
With soothing background music and the ability to be transported to a museum for closer inspection of Van Gogh's work, this is a great way for kids to learn about this artist and 10 of his famous paintings. Van Gogh and the Sunflowers works well with kids who are interested in art. However, by adding fascinating mechanical puzzles within, it will also draw in kids interested in engineering.
This updated app review of Van Gogh and the Sunflowers was written by Jinny Gudmundsen. The original review was published on Feb. 12, 2012.
All tech products are judged on a five star scale by looking at the following factors: fun, education, ease of use, value, and technical.
