Parents, Poets, the Media and a Minister take iF Poems, First ever poetry App for children, to the top of the charts
If Poems, the first ever poetry App for children, featuring 230 poems, some of which are read by British icons Helena Bonham Carter and Bill Nighy, was 
downloaded a staggering 2000 times for iPhone and iPad within the first day of its release. The downloads brought the online poetry sensation to the position as Number 3 best selling App on the iPad chart, beating even Angry Birds in popularity. The App was ranked Number 1 Lifestyle App for a week, beating all other 40,000+ Lifestyle Apps to the top.
Parents have downloaded the App from 27 countries including some as far flung as Jamaica and Malaysia. Ten per cent of all sales of the App will go to Save the Children's work helping children the world over fulfil their potential. In just the first day of the App’s release, the partnership had paid for the sum of providing educational books and toys for almost 100 children living in poverty in the UK.
The launch of a modern take on classic poetry did not go unnoticed by the media and poets alike. A national broadsheet dedicated a supplement to the App’s contents, laying out poems and the App’s illustrations by Natasha Law, for parents to keep at home. The paper was also inspired by the App to launch an online poetry competition for children, judged by the well known poet, Michael Rosen.
Other Poets have also given their full support to the invention:
William Sieghart, founder of both The Forward Prize for Poetry and National Poetry Day said: 'If Poems is the most exciting to happen to poetry on the internet'.
Giles Andreae, author of Purple Ronnie, Edward Monkton, and many other award winning children’s books, said “It’s absolutely brilliant! Wonderful choices, beautifully read, intelligently laid out, gloriously designed – and fun to play with and search through.”
Even the Education Minister, Michael Gove, was noticed to have downloaded the App by the Daily Mail. His purchase of the App came at the same time as last week’s speech at Cambridge University where he said: “We can all marvel at the genius of Pythagoras, or Wagner, share in the brilliance of Shakespeare or Newton, delve deeper into the mysteries of human nature through Balzac or Pinker, by taking the trouble to be educated. […] Denying any child access to that amazing legacy, that treasure-house of wonder, delight, stimulation and enchantment by failing to educate them to the utmost of their abilities is as great a crime as raiding their parents bank accounts - you are stealing from their rightful inheritance, condemning them to a future poorer than they deserve.”
The App is written by two parents, Allie Esiri, mother of three a writer and actress, and Rachel Kelly, mother of five and a writer. They said: “We created the app as we thought it would be interesting today to provide poetry in a new way. We thought that hearing two brilliant actors reading the poems was something beyond just a book. The audio medium provided on both the iPad and the iPhone is a perfect return to the oral tradition of poetry. If children turn to poems on their devices instead of video games, then we shall be very pleased. And when they recite poems and record them we shall dance a jig. "
Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children said: “This App is a brilliant way for families to share classic poetry in a modern format and Save the Children is proud and delighted to be its charity partner . 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 theApp helps your child with theirs.”
The iF Poems app for iPad and iPhone are available now for download in 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.
Click here to download the App for your iPad and here for your iPhone
If only…
If only there was an app that could educate as well as entertain…
If only there was an app that used words instead of weapons…
If only your children could discover the wonders of poetry on their own terms, at their own speed…
Imagine if their teachers were two of the finest actors of their generation ...
Welcome to iF Poems: The first ever poetry App for children
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 in 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 to download the App for your iPad and here for your iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/if-poems-for-the-iphone/id476329476?mt=8&ls=1
Twitter : #ifpoems
Save the Children works in more than 120 countries. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential.
Extra info
• The reader can search the poems by 12 categories, for example Love and Friendship poems, War poems, Short poems and Tell Me A Tale poems. Or the reader can surf by age group 0-6, 7-12, 13 and over, or by title /first line.
• The iPad app has a dictionary.
• The app has the original facility to record yourself reading a poem. A parent can record a poem for their children, or the child can record one itself.
• With headphones on, the poems can be enjoyed whilst out and about - a perfect bite-sized pleasure!
• The app has an educational section, called ‘If You Need A Haiku, etc’ - with definitions and examples of different types of poetry.
• It has a selection of poems designed to address emotional needs, for example, we have chosen poems which you might turn to ‘If You Are Facing Grief’, or ‘If You Need Courage’.
• It also offers the opportunity to share the text of the poem using social media.
Bill Nighy reads a selection, including:
• Charge of The Light Brigade - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• A Visit From St Nicholas - Clement Clark Moore
• Annabel Lee - Edgar Allen Poe
• O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman
Helena Bonham Carter reads a selection, including:
• The Owl And The Pussycat by Edward Lear
• The Mock Turtle’s Song by Lewis Carroll
• The Arrow And The Song by H W Longfellow
• Daffodils by William Wordsworth
Together:
• The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• Double, double, toil and trouble by William Shakespeare
About Us:
Rachel Kelly worked as a staff writer on The Times for 10 years.
Allie Esiri worked as an actress for 10 years, with the English Shakespeare Company and TV such as Sharpe, Poirot, Touch of Frost and Men Behaving Badly. She has contributed to American Vogue, ES magazine and T for New York Times magazine.
The App developers: Thomas and Marc Wilson at Chocolate Creative www.chocolate-creative.co.uk
Natasha Law is represented by Breed London www.breedlondon.com. She is an acclaimed artist who is known for her delicate line drawing. She has collaborated with the designers Mulberry, Beatrix Ong, and Vogue
Thousands of families in the UK now have the chance to work their way out of poverty, thanks to our campaign for affordable childcare.
Help us do more to give the poorest kids a better start in life.
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