I'm a big fan of Moonbot Studios—that "secret zero-gravity colony inhabited by interstellar beings" in Shreveport, LA. Co-founder and author William Joyce and his crewe have produced some wildly imaginative, successful productions, including The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore of Oscar-winning fame. That story has seen several incarnations, the last an Imag.N.O.Tron version featuring “augmented reality." If you haven't yet seen how that works, take a peek at our demonstration. As viewers hold an iPad over the book version of Morris Lessmore, characters begin to move, pages flutter, and books whisper. It’s pure magic. Now Moonbot has created an Imag.N.O.Tron app for The Numberlys, their homage to classic films of the 1920s, specifically Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The Numberlys features a futuristic world filled with machinery and numbers, but devoid of color and letters. In that world five rotund creatures set out to make something "different" and through trial and error forge the 26 letters of the alphabet. School Library Journal's reviewer praised that production, calling it a "cinematic” with a “gorgeously rich orchestral soundtrack." Moonbot Studios has since produced a Numberlys film and William Joyce and Christina Ellis's The Numberlys is now a book (Atheneum, 2013). Like the augmented Morris Lessmore, viewers will need a copy of the book to activate the Numberlys Imag.N.O.Tron (iOS, $.99; Android, $.99; Kindle HDX, $.99). Unlike Morris Lessmore, this app is less story enhancement than gameplay. With device and book in hand Imag.N.O.Tron adds motion and sound (grinding gears, marching feet) to many of the story’s scenes, but the real goal is to locate and collect the letters of the alphabet and various toys on its pages. To capture them viewers must hold a phone or tablet on “camera” mode over a page of the book; a tap to a glowing object or letter will lock it in. Children who have enjoyed the Numberlys story app will recognize the accented voice Mike Martindale, who lets them know just what they have found. Once captured the items can dropped into the toy box (letters are first presented as simple puzzles that must be pieced together) along with the digits 0-9. On the toy box stage children can play or build with whatever assortment of toys they have collected—possibly gears, a helicopter, pipe fittings, a pulley, and others items befitting an industrial setting. Number and alphabet games are also available; both involve dragging letters or digits into their corresponding outlined shapes. Letters and words (“piston” “gear” “box” “book,” etc.), are sounded out and pronounced and numbers are voiced when completed. Words and numbers are also illustrated, offering concept reinforcement. Because it takes a little maneuvering and effort to capture the images and unlock the alphabet game, the app is best suited to children with some fine motor control and a little patience, but those that persevere will be rewarded with an opportunity for imaginative play and the stunning graphics we have come to expect from Moonbot.—Daryl Grabarek, School Library Journal

In the toy box with The Numberlys Imag.N.O.Tron (Moonbot) Joyce and Ellis

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