We first experienced augmented reality with Moonbot’s Imag.N.O.Tron app, used in conjunction with the print version of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Holding the iPad squarely over the book and giving the app a moment to "recognize" an image, allowed it to pull characters, scenes, and scenery off the page and into our 3-D space—creating a thrilling cinematic experience. Since then, we've seen other terrific examples of this technology, including The Numberlys Imag.N.O.Tron (Moonbot again), and Horrible Hauntings, which works with Shirin Yim Bridges’s book of the same title. Pop-up app seems to be growing in popularity as a term for these apps. The app reviewed today by Sara Lissa Paulson has both book and pop-up versions. The Prairie that Nature Built (iOS $4.99; PreS-Gr 3) by Dawn Publications (Over in the Ocean, and The Mouse and the Meadow), a new app based on Marybeth Lorbiecki's the book of the same title (2014), continues the publisher’s strong commitment to environmental education. Here, the ecosystem of a prairie and its interconnectedness is explained through the exploration of the roles that various groups of animals and plants play: soil partners, burrowers, seedeaters, scavengers, grazers, predators, pollinators, grasses, and flowers.

Interior screen from "The Prairie That Nature Built" (Dawn) Morrison

The story features a cumulative tale structure with a mellifluous audio voice track and text highlighted as it is read. Children can also chose to read the story and view the illustrations at their own pace. Plenty of details about the ecosystem are related, and more can be found in the "Prairie Primer" that follows the story. Animals and plants can be seen above and below ground. When tapped, flowers sway, wings flutter, beetles scurry, and the prairie dogs pop out of their burrows. A fire sends bison and antelope running across the frame. Cathy Morrison's the computer-generated art is heavily saturated, but accurate and eye-catching. The app also includes a game: seven colorful screens ask viewers to match the labels or names of "critters that worm and squirm" to their images, diggers to their tunnels, roots to their plants, flowers to their blossoms, and so on. etc. Information about the author, illustrator, and app developer is included. A free pop-up app is available for those who own the book (those without it can experience the augmented reality with sample pages on the publisher's website.) This app offers a narration of the story (minus the text highlighting). So what does the pop-up version reveal? It augments the reality—poise your iPad or iPhone at a 45-90 degree angle—and watch as the animals jump out of the setting and into in a 3-D space, unconstrained by the frame of a book. It's fantastic fun, but having no frame presents a new problem; if the frame of an illustration cuts off the head of an animal, then the animal remains headless in the 3-D space. (There are two such pictures in the free pop-up app.) Nevertheless, Prairie is the best app (and book) on prairie life that I have shared with young children.—Sara Lissa Paulson, Librarian PS 347 - "47" The American Sign Language & English Lower School For additional app reviews, visit our Touch and Go webpage.