iF Poems: The first ever poetry App for children in aid of Save The Children

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Published on Thursday, 24 November 2011 19:50

Last Updated on 24 November 2011

Monica Costa

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Read by Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Nighy and illustrated by Natasha Law. Designed and conceived by former actress and mother of three Allie Esiri and writer and mother of five Rachel Kelly, the iF Poems App aims to introduce poetry to school-age children in a creative, fun way. Inspired by their own children’s love of reading (but also their incessant desire to play on the iPad) this collection will entertain as much as it educates. Ten per cent of all sales of the App will go to Save the Children’s work helping children the world over fulfill their potential.

From Lear’s The Own and the Pussycat to Belloc’s Matilda Who Told Lies and Was Burned To Death to Yeats’s An Irish Airman Forsees His Death, the breadth and scope of poems will help your child understand the solace, joy and beauty of poetry. Beautifully illustrated and read by two of Britain’s finest and most loved actors, this magical collection of 230 poems is the perfect tool or Christmas present for tech-savvy parents and grandparents.

Helena Bonham Carter says: “There is little that is as deeply satisfying than the apt poem. It’s like chocolate for the soul. Except less fattening. And unlike most delicious things in life it’s actually good for you. It resolves the nervous system, captures the elusive experience of being alive so we may always have it and never lose it. Give your child an appetite for poems and they will never be bored. Get this app, and with poems in your pocket you’ll be armed with beauty and food for the soul and you will never be lonely. I think as a child I was a bit scared by poetry until someone told me it was a song that didn’t need the music… Some people say that a good tweet is a haiku. A text could be a poem too… It’s just making magic with words…”

The iF Poems app for iPad and iPhone will be available to download from November, priced at £1.99 for the iPhone and £2.99 for the iPad version in the UK. Ten per cent of all sales goes to help fund the work of Save the Children. 10 downloads of the App for iPad would buy a mosquito net to protect a child from malaria, or buy a blanket for a newborn baby living in poverty in the UK as the winter comes around.

A few more than that would provide a child in the UK with educational books or toys to help them with their development while the App helps your child with theirs. Click here http://itunes.apple.com to download the App for your iPad.