Rain at Noon is a paper book and an application for children.

Joe is a little goldfish who dreams of becoming a shark, because sharks are considered to be the greatest heroes in all the oceans. When a violent storm breaks out and carries his fake fin away...well, the journey begins.

The story of Joe is told both in a book and in an application.

These are two sides of the same adventure presented using unique types of paper and digital media.

The cut-out book will delight both adults and children.

Throughout the pages, Joe will learn how to become a real hero by accepting who he is.  Each fake fin he finds represents a new character in the story that will help him grow and become more aware of his place in life around him.

The illustrations explore forms and colors, and different elements will appear according to different weather conditions.

In the book, the reader will also find detachable paper forms that interact with the screen. The screen is used as the surface of the ocean from which the fake fins protrude.

Through an interactive ocean, animations and games, the story of Joe unfolds.

All the fish that populate the ocean can be collected in each of the four games, the player’s goal is to help Joe find his lost fin. The application changes and expands according to the weather near you and the time of day.

Throughout the adventures, the player will encounter many challenges, such as getting out of a coral reef, releasing the yellow fish, moving an octopus and jumping from a train.

At the end of each game, the player will win a new power that permits him/her to change the weather in the ocean. Five powers are available: sun, rain, snow, night, and storm. A map will help the player see his/her location and his/her progression in the game.

Finally, when the user finishes the four games, a whale will meet Joe and deliver the precious fin to him.

The Rain At Noon app is available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.  The experience is optimized for tablets.

The book and the application can be used separately.

The book is sold at 14€90 and the application at 2€29.

Julie Stephen Chheng graduated from the School of Decorative Arts in Paris (ENSAD). Passionate about books and movies, she is interested in new technologies to discover new ways of telling stories. In 2011, she set up her studio at Volumique, a creative studio mixing tangible and digital media, with Etienne Mineur as CEO and Creative Director.

She is the author of book-objects : Poems in Pieces, Adventures of a Village, and The Unfoldables, as well as transmedia projects : Moving Cards, Adventures of the Little Postal Train, Uramado and Rain at Noon.  She was artist-in-residence at the Hong Kong Arts Center in 2014.  In 2016, she spent 4 months in Kyoto as a Digital Arts artist-in-residence with Thomas Pons, at the Villa Kujoyama of the French Institute.