The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a spectacularly great iPad eBook and app. So much for review verdict spoilers eh? I couldn’t help it – this is just a fantastic and charming app. One that I already love, and one I know my daughter will love equally – and I can’t wait to show it to her.

Here’s a bit of the developers’ description of the app:

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

Highlights

– The story itself is wonderful. It’s all about the love of books and love of reading. For me, this is one of the most important values to share with a child – it’s something my wife and I have done our best to instill in our daughter ever since she was tiny and I love how this eBook reminds us how great the world of words and books is.

– The illustrations throughout the app are just beautiful, among the very best I’ve seen in any iPad eBook.

– The app is also full of lovely animations.

– It is also full of hugely fun and imaginative interactive elements on pages – again, among the very best of any iPad eBook title. Some examples of these:

On a page where it talks of months and years passing, with each tap on the screen the background illustration shows the changing of seasons …

Towards the end, tap on Morris and his thought bubble and with each tap it moves through his recollection of parts of the story …

On a page about Morris sharing books with friends, copies of Treasure Island, Frankenstein, and Alice in Wonderland float above the heads of his friends and when you drag one of the books onto one of the friends, they are transformed to wearing an outfit from a character in the book and speak a line relating to it – with different results depending on which friend you drag the book to.

Overall

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore is more than worthy of being included in any listing of Best Ever iPad apps, and is certainly an instant favorite for me.

If this app doesn’t soon make it into an iPad TV commercial I’ll be shocked. It is the epitome of what makes the iPad live up to its ‘magical’ billing. A wonderful story, full of gorgeous illustrations, animation, and fun interactive bits, rendered perfectly for the iPad.

UPDATE: We read this as our bedtime story with my daughter last night, and just as expected she loved it. Watching her face light up at the original and fun interactive bits, and at just the lovely words of the story itself, is worth way more than the price of the app.

Here’s an App Store link for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore; it’s priced at $4.99.

Disclosure: This app was independently purchased by the post author in the iPad App Store. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About”