Kid’s take ‘Mum’s Cronky Car’ for a test drive with new app

There’s no test to pass! Kids will just need a license for laughs when they get behind the wheel of ‘Mum’s Cronky Car,’ the latest app from innovative children’s book and app publisher, Digital Leaf.

‘Mum’s Cronky Car’ is based on the original book by former primary school teacher, Anita Pouroulis, which is also published by Digital Leaf. It was inspired by Anita’s childhood memories of her Mum’s own car, a real rustbucket they called the ‘Cronk.’ The big, bright and bouncy illustrations are by Jon Lycett-Smith.

The book tells the story of a young girl and her brother who nearly die with embarrassment every time their Mum drives them to school in her ‘Cronky’ old car. When the ‘Cronk’ breaks down at the traffic lights one morning, it looks like he’ll even be overtaken by a disability scooter! Then one day, the ‘Cronk’ does something unbelievable and the kids are flying high! (Watch out for the elephant!)

‘A modern Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for the suburbs!’ says popular poet and Phoenix FM radio presenter, Gez Walsh.

The app comes complete with puzzles and games providing interactive entertainment at many levels for children 4+. There are surprising interactions on every page. Young drivers can help Dad push-start the ‘Cronk’ into action, for example, or touch the car and make it zoom away. Kids will also get the chance to put the bodywork back after the ‘Cronk’ completely falls apart!

There’s always extra fun to be had as the kid’s try to find and count the missing spanners in every scene; if they find them all a special bonus jigsaw game is unlocked.

A novel feature of this app is that kids can choose from an adult narrator or a kid’s voice, which is fun for them, or they can read it for themselves, or with an adult.

The app has been developed for both android and iOS digital devices, iPhone and iPad, and will be available from the Google Play store and the iTunes App Store from 10 December 2012, priced at UK£2.99/US$4.99.

This is the fourth book by Anita Pouroulis that Digital Leaf has developed as an animated, interactive app. The first - 'Pancake Pandemonium' - was released on 1 October 2012 and has already had over 20,000 downloads.

This was followed by ‘My Monster Mayhem’ which was launched in late October, leapt straight on to many ‘Best Apps for Halloween’ lists, and was a Top iOS App of the Week.

The third app 'Oh What A Tangle!' was released on 12 November 2012. Digital Leaf co-founder Neil Jeffries says it’s a close race but ‘Mum’s Cronky Car’ may be his ‘favourite app of the series.’

‘This is a story with a great sense of humour, revved up by John’s hilarious illustrations, and driven by tonnes of interactivity to keep kids happy on those long holiday car journeys. This is one trip when the kids aren’t going to whine, ‘Are we there yet?’

For more information, visit digitalleaf.co.uk.