Kundersanterbleebin – A Christmas Story Review – A magical Christmas storybook on a magical device

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By: Copper Pi

Version #: 1.1

Date Released: 2011-11-19

Developer: Copper Pi

Price: 4.99

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According to the neat countdown to Christmas Day in Kundersanterbleebin, an oddly named app designed exclusively for the iPad, there are only three weeks to go before the world yet again celebrates the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. This countdown apparatus is styled in the manner of a locket attached to a gold chain, bearing the exact number of days before December 25. But lest you think that Kundersanterbleebin is an iPad app that’s solely a Christmas countdown display of sorts, and one that costs $4.99 at that, let it be made clear right away that it’s not—at least not only. The Christmas countdown is but a small inclusion in the title page of Kundersanterbleebin. That’s right: title page. Kundersanterbleebin has one because it’s actually a book app compatible with the iPad. And it’s not just a typical book app. Kundersanterbleebin, as already hinted at by the Christmas countdown, is a Christmas storybook app.

On the title page of Kundersanterbleebin, along with the countdown, are names associated with the app: Bret Hickenlooper, the writer; Kory Fluckiger, the illustrator; and Copper Pi, the publisher. Up top is a blank field  (“This book belongs to _____”) asking for your or your little one’s name, below which is the designation, “A ‘Doobinbleeb.’” But what in the world is a Doobinbleeb? And what does the title, Kundersanterbleebin, mean anyway?

Kundersanterbleebin is a new children’s story that’s reminiscent of the quality of the best traditional Christmas stories for kids, including the ones adapted into classic cartoons that get shown on television on mornings leading to Christmas morning itself. The story features Santa Claus, his helper elves, and a certain boy who happens to be a Bleebernob. Now there goes another peculiar word. Bleebernob, the story tells us, is the opposite of a Doobinbleeb, and Kundersanterbleebin is the magic word that could turn a Bleebernob into a Doobinbleeb.

That’s all very well and interesting, you might think, but what do they all mean? According to Hickenlooper’s imagination and as stated in one of the pages of the book app, these words are from the ancient language of Elfanese (not to be confused with the Elvish language in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings). A Doobinbleeb is a believer, while a Bleebernob is a non-believer. Kundersanterbleebin, in turn, is a mantra that means “I do believe in Santa!” (not to be confused with “I do believe in fairies!” in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan) in plain English.

With Christmas fast approaching and in preparation for his annual trip around the world to deliver gifts to well-behaved children, Santa goes through his list of names of kids and announces whether this boy or that girl is a Doobinbleeb or a Bleebernob. One stubborn boy, it turns out, is the latter. The elves are flabbergasted of this apparent discrepancy, but Santa is not about to be dismissed as nonexistent by a little non-believer. He promises his elves to take care of the matter, armed with the spirit of Christmas and the ancient magic embedded in the word Kundersanterbleebin.

The basic premise of Kundersanterbleebin is good in itself, a simple kids’ yarn about the power of words and faith, so it’s encouraging to see that its appeal is complemented by Hickenlooper’s eloquent rhymes as well as by Fluckiger’s wonderful graphics. The story is told in twenty-odd pages containing the author’s words and the fine artist’s illustrations, the former incorporated fluidly on the latter rather than just being boxed into stanzas and placed arbitrarily on page corners. The words are also formatted so that the English words are rendered in marker felt while the Elfanese ones are presented in a “magical” font called Nemo, which is developed by Chris Hansen.

Further, the illustrations are whimsical and heavily textured, at times looking as though they’re real-life mixed-media works of art. What the app lacks, though, is the level of interactivity common in most iPad book apps, so don’t expect, say, to hear Santa belly-laughing his famous string of ho ho ho’s when you tap his body on the screen. But perhaps this omission is actually an advantage for Kundersanterbleebin, since interactive elements in a book app, especially in a poorly written one, sometimes distract the reader from the delightful combination of text and images on the page and betray the mediocrity of the storytelling involved and the story itself. (Copper Pi, however, promises updates that will add interactive enhancements and more value to the app.)

You can, of course, read Kundersanterbleebin aloud to your child, niece, or nephew, as you would a traditional, tangible storybook. Or you can opt to enable the app’s nifty read-to-me feature. This feature, also present in other book apps, activates a page by page narration performed by the author himself, complete with inspired inflections and appropriate intonations. In both setups, turning pages is as easy as swiping across the screen, whereupon the current page curls to reveal the next or previous one in tandem with a page-turning sound effect.

The app is also outfitted with jingly-jangly background music. You can select your preferred reading and soundtrack options in the app’s setting menu, accessible by tapping the open book icon at the bottom left corner of every page. In the settings menu you can also see a slider showing mini-previews of the book’s pages in sequence (tapping a preview links you directly to the corresponding page), an envelope icon you can tap to spread the word about the app to your friends via email, and a gift icon that when tapped takes you to the App Store and lets you, true to the season’s persuasion towards generosity, “gift” the app to someone who you think will also appreciate a great Chistmas story creatively told on a great platform.