This Earth Day, Oceanhouse Media wants more than just your ham and eggs to go green. The app publisher is marking the 40th anniversary of the April 22 event with a spate of new iPhone and iPad apps based on Dr. Seuss’s environmentally-themed classic, The Lorax.
The Lorax chronicles the plight of the environment and follows the title character, a mossy creature who speaks for trees against the greedy, big-industry businessman, the Once-ler. A hybrid app for both the iPhone and iPod touch, the $4 Lorax e-book combines the classic, original Dr. Seuss artwork with interactive features designed to promote reading in young children, including highlighted picture and word associations, professional narrations, and custom background audio. The iPad version includes high-resolution artwork, which should benefit from the device’s large, crisp display.
The Lorax Garden game continues where the book left off, with players helping the Lorax regrow the world’s Truffula tree forests one tree at a time. Players can also design their own trees and flowers, which grow in real-time 3D—presumably faster than real trees—and share postcards of the forests they’ve created by e-mail. Lorax Garden costs $3.
Finally, the $3 Dr. Seuss Senders app contains 100 cards with fun Seussian quotes and sayings that can be sent to friends or family for inspiration and cheer. The greetings are arranged in categories such as love, get-well, congratulations, and so on.