This month take a journey through the family history of a young Black woman in Dot’s Home. Practice words and play memorably silly games in Hideout: Early Reading. Quiz your kids and yourself with African Geo. Finally, relax with puzzles featuring works of art and stories from artists all over world in Illustrated.
Garry Froehlich
Jellybean Tunes
Dot’s Home
By JoLu Productions Inc.
Dot’s Home is the story of a young Black woman and the history of her family. As Dot’s grandmother is pressured to sell her home to developers, Dot ends up travelling back through time to key moments in her family’s history. At each stage, Dot witnesses their struggles around race, gentrification and community, and is presented with a decision that will potentially change their story. At the end, Dot is given one of three endings, depending on your decisions, and you can replay the story to see the other endings (or simply view them as the app unlocks all endings for you). The story is presented as a point-and-click adventure with full animation and voice acting. Dot’s Home is a quality and thought-provoking adventure.
Hideout: Early Reading
By Third Rail Games LLC
Hideout focussing on teaching kids words through silly and simple games. Kids start at a crazy tree clubhouse and choose a partial word ending like “ap” or “ock” and then the app shows them how they can make words like “cap” or “dock” by adding consonants. Hideout then gives them a game to play involving the words, such as scrubbing cubs, tapping caps, or knocking over blocks on the dock. The graphics, animation, and narration are all well-done, and the developer has recently removed the need for in-app purchases, making it free to use.
African Geo
By Darren McNally
African Geo is a quiz app focussing on the countries, capitals, and general facts about the geography of the continent of Africa. Kids choose from one of several categories (countries, capitals, regions, etc.) and then are presented with multiple choice questions. They are given points for each correct answer, and continue until they make five mistakes. The app shows photos or maps with each question to give context, and delving into the quizzes helps to show the massive size and diversity of the continent.
Illustrated
By BorderLeap
Illustrated is a gorgeous jigsaw puzzle game with an interesting twist. The app contains art and stories from artists around the world, and each puzzle encourages you to flip back and forth between the image and the story imprinted on the puzzle pieces in order to complete the puzzle. You can choose to have all the edge pieces separated for you, and puzzle pieces lock into place to make it easier for younger players, and if you have multiple devices families can play together. This really is one of the better jigsaw puzzle games I’ve seen, from the artwork, to the music, to the sound design. Illustrated requires a subscription to Apple Arcade or Apple One.
