Prepare to spend time with this app. On opening it you'll find yourself in a labyrinth and a mystery, and it's up to you to decide where the story goes. Download the first chapter (it's free) and experience the adventure described below. Roland Bartholomew Dexter III lives a life of rigid rules and inflexible routines. His family runs a barbershop that, oddly, has only one customer. The boy works in the shop sweeping the floor and, because his family is so poor, helps to recycle the hair into everything his family needs from clothing to (gross!) dinner (hairburgers, toupée brûlée, anyone?). The most important rule, according to his parents, is that Roland never ever go outside. The boy begins considering the possibility that his family is trapped and that the rules are meant to keep them inside. Soon, however, thanks to a visit from a girl named Becky, Roland discovers that his dreams of the outside may well be the key to saving his family.

Screen from 'Loose Strands' (Darned Sock) Frizzell

In the vein of the wildly popular stories in which readers are able to dictate the direction the story takes, Markian Moyes’s Loose Strands (Darned Sock Productions, $4.99; Gr 3-6) illustrated by Jeff Frizzell, allows viewers choices at certain story junctures. Each decision has ramifications, of course. Once a decision is made, a story map flashes onto the screen. The map, a seemingly endless grid, has lines circling through the boxes indicating the pages readers have already visited. When a choice eliminates certain avenues, those boxes are filled in. With text pages that can turn in any direction and richly drawn, often animated illustrations that are reminiscent of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black's artistic style in The Spiderwick Chronicles (S & S), readers will delight in this intricate, interactive story that unfolds, and changes, along a strand of hair. From start to finish it’s a long trip, but once children have completed the story, chances are they will want to go back and explore all its possible outcomes.—Wayne R. Cherry, Jr., First Baptist Academy, Houston, TX For additional app reviews visit our Touch and Go webpage.