The Magnificent Travelling Palace – A Unique World on Rails

A magical adventure story with four kids!

Isn’t the idea of travelling in a moving palace simply amazing? Well, this is why Plane Tree Family Productions have come up  with this new 3D storybook app The Magnificent Travelling Palace. This interactive adventure story introduces children with exciting worlds of diverse cultures, colors, sounds and tastes, while stimulating their imagination and natural curiosity.

The story of the Magnificent Travelling Palace, written by Shoham Drori and the animations put forth by Rakesh Nanda is one of the awarded storybook apps for kids. This particular app , filled with wonder and learning, teaches a lot about the Indian culture and all its various beautiful aspects.

The app follows a magical adventure story through the eyes of four children, Rajeev and his sister Lalita, and their friends Tushar and Deepika. The story is based in Udaipur, a town in the state of Rajasthan. Their friend Raju , who sells sugar cane in a local market, tells them about a magnificent travelling palace that will be coming to town the next day, which is actually a luxurious train. Together they catch a glimpse of a very special train which is described to them as a palace on wheels.

The four friends after school who sell pottery in the market are mesmerized by the idea of travelling in a moving  palace. When the day comes to board the special train, unfortunately the Travelling Palace leaves Udaipur before the friends get out of school, so they board a local train to chase the palace. The children make it to Dungarpur where they find the train and are welcomed aboard. They discover silken bed linens, crystal chandeliers and explore all the wonders the train has to offer. Everyone on board is nice and friendly and the kids are treated like guests and offered refreshments. The train has one beautiful car after another, an amazing dining car where they eat a delicious desert. While enjoying these refreshments the children  are reminded of the hungry kids back in their village.

The colorful graphics, the thrilling musical sound effects, the 3D animation and striking animated transitions lead both the readers and listeners into the world of fantasies. The backdrop of rural India lets you to get connected to the real world, thus educating young readers about some occupations and foods specific to the country, while enjoying it with authentic music and interactive activities. The app encourages children to indulge in healthy eating. Parents can prepare foods whose recipes are mentioned in the app, like semolina recipe.

The Magnificent Travelling Palace available at $2.99 includes three reading modes : read to me (narration with manual page turning), read it myself (no narration with manual page turning), and auto play (narration and automatic page turning).  There is a choice of American and British English narration. The author uses descriptive language that gives the readers a real feel for India.

Just a little slow in responding, this fun and interesting app especially for the little ones, is compatible only with iPad with iOS 4.0 or later. The Magnificent Travelling Palace is an app for enriching children about the culture of India.