We are absolutely THRILLED that our app Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Safari is the winner of the inaugural UKLA Digital Book Award!
The award, in partnership with Book Trust, and sponsored by The Open University, is the only national Digital Book Award judged by teachers – and we’re so pleased and proud that Flip Flap Safari has been recognised.
In their commendation for the app, the UKLA wrote that Flip Flap Safari is “beautifully produced and appealing and can easily be incorporated into guided reading sessions. Children have great fun creating their own animals and playing guessing games and the ‘read to me’ feature is a useful tool enabling all children to enjoy the book. Teacher judges appreciated the rich vocabulary and thought the poetry examples inspired further poetry activities in class.”
Dr Natalia Kucirkova, Chair of the Digital Book Award, said: “There are many apps for this age group which either replicate non-digital activities or provide an add-on experience. The choice of Flip Flap Safari as the winner shows that teachers appreciate when digital books can integrate and complement current best practice.”
Book Trust, Chief Executive, Diana Gerald said: “It’s time to start looking at apps and digital reading materials with the same critical eye that we use to appraise children’s reading books. We’re still looking at how best this can be done, but getting teachers-the experts on the ground-to assess these apps after using them with children in a classroom, has to be a really good starting point. Congratulations to Axel Scheffler, Flip Flap Safari is a worthy and engaging winner.”
The follow-up to the hugely popular Axel Scheffler’s Flip Flap Farm, the app features wonderful animal artwork from Axel Scheffler, along with brilliant rhyming poems, original music, sound effects and read-along audio. Using a fantastically intuitive, user-friendly interface, you can swipe any part of the screen to create 121 different combinations of animal halves, rhymes and silly, hybrid animal names – all read aloud and set to safari music.
If you’re new to the app, here’s a quick look at Flip Flap Safari:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU5iOq9T1VM
You can read more about the award here. Many thanks to the UKLA for this incredible honour, and congratulations, Axel!
