Frog's Princess is an interactive story app developed for Apple and Android phones and tablets as well as Windows computers. Along with text and images, the storybook has music, sound effects, visual effects and movement.
The story it a retelling of the German fairy tale entitled "The Frog King & Iron Henry" collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and first published in handwriting in 1810.
The princess has been taught that one day her prince will come. She rebels against evil by calling for help, but eventually learns she must save her kingdom herself. The prince has ADHD and shows off to hide his insecurity, but eventually gains the confidence to heal the kingdom and the princess.
Players click through the story, designing their characters at the end of the short tutorial chapter, then choosing from out of ten different fully voiced texts when the prince and princess speak. If they make a dialogue choice at every opportunity their version will likely be unique, and they will have designed the heroes they want. There are 918 pages in the story. Pages are only available when the chosen hero is present and conscious. Playing straight through without pausing to make choices takes 2 hours and 48 minutes for the Prince storyline. A further 12 minutes is available in the alternate Princess storyline. Instructions on How To Play are available on the Frog's Princess website.
Although Frog's Princess is designed for 8-to-10-year-old children, testing has shown that 5-and 6-year old boys become fascinated with the Play mechanic. The storybook seems to serve as a bridge between videos and reading for children who discover they can press a button, and see a whole new page, and then nothing else will happen until they press a button again to turn to the next page.
Frog's Princess has also proved appealing to women for whom English is not their first language.
Teaching opportunities
Teaching opportunities are strongest for:
English language exercises
Structure and archetypes in fairy tales
Insight into motivation of other people
Moral dilemmas
Reading fluency for slow readers
Teaching material
US and Canadian teachers - page not yet created