Category: eBook Reviews

iPhone/iPad/iPod Dr. Seuss eBook apps: All are Awesome and Teach Kids to Read!

I have posted on the Dr. Seuss ebooks for iPhone/iPad/iPod apps by Oceanhouse Media previously (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss ABC, The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, The Lorax and Oh The Places You’ll Go) and how much I think their apps are the gold standard for ebooks.  Here’s why:

  • You can’t go wrong with Dr. Seuss!  Beloved now as much as when they first came out!
  • The stories are still relevant and appealing to kids!
  • The narration of the stories is spot-on!  The voices are exactly what I would have imagined for the “perfect voice” – Green Eggs and Ham is a great example.  Sam is a friendlier voice that is slightly higher than the guy who won’t eat the eggs and ham — his voice is lower and grumpier.
  • Every page has interactivity meant to engage the kids and make the words leap off the page — literally.  If you click on an image, the word lights up and floats over to the image.  If the story is not being read, you will also hear the word.  My son thinks making the words appear is really fun but I love it because it is helping him learn to recognize words.
  • As the narrator reads the story, each word lights up.  This helps teach kids to read.
  • You have the option to read the ebook to your child, have the narrator read the story and turn the pages, or have the narrator read the story while your child turns the pages (and plays by pointing to the images on the book).
  • At $3.99 an app, the ebooks are less expensive than the actual book.

These are the latest books:

Green Eggs and Ham.  A true classic and the perfect story for children who need to be encouraged to try new foods. [ages 2-6]

Hop on Pop.  A nice rhyming book that subtly teaches kids phonics through silly rhymes.  [ages 2-4]

Yertle the Turtle.  An autocratic King of Turtles gets his comeuppance.  [ages 3-6]
Gertrude McFuzz. A young girl bird who wishes that she had a fancier tail has her wish come true.  Be careful what you wish for!  A nice story especially for girls that teaches them to accept themselves for who they are.  [ages 3-6]

The Big Brag. A wise earthworm teaches a rabbit and a bear not to brag.  [ages 4-7]

Aug 20, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

iPhone/iPad/iPod ebook: The Nurse with the Red Clown Nose (about children with cancer)

StoryBoy sent me some codes to try out some of their ebooks and this one really moved me. The Nurse with the Red Clown Nose is an ePictureBook for iPhone/iPad/iPod and it’s a really simple but moving story about a child going through chemotherapy and her wonderful nurse who sometimes dons a red clown nose when the kids least expect it to make them laugh.

This makes a great little present for that special nurse that you might know as a neighbor, friend or relative.  Nurses are unsung heroes, particular those who work with very sick children!  Another use for this app would be to  introduce the concept cancer to a child, particularly if they might be touched by cancer through a loved one.

The story is simple but well told about the ups and downs of battling cancer but leaves the reader with hope.  The story also gives a brief glimpse into what it means to have cancer:  cancer is not contagious; the treatment for cancer makes you very tire; sometime you lose your hair; and that anyone fighting cancer is very brave.

The description on StoryBoy‘s website about this app says simply this:

“All StoryBoy sales proceeds benefit the Children’s Cancer Foundation. An uplifting story that is a wonderful way to introduce a serious illness to kids and to teach them to always keep laughing.”

And the inscription on the ebook says this:  ”This book is dedicated to all the brave kids, families and caregivers whose lives have been touched by cancer in one way or another …”

The app is $.99 at iTunes.  Click on the image of the app if you want to connect directly to it on iTunes.

Aug 16, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

iPhone/iPad ebook app: Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! (ages 1-5)

This is a cute rhyming iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch ebook app by StoryBoy.net  that my 5-year-old son really liked.  He went through a serious dinosaur phase when he was three and has since moved on to Pokemon, Bakugan, Ben 10 and now Avatar:  The Last Airbender so I was pleasantly surprised when he opted to read this very simple ebook instead of playing his usual Angry Bird game.  I think this ebook brought back fond memories of that time.

There is a small amount of animation in the app where the dinosaurs move across the page but mostly this is a simple story of just a single sentence per page.  I don’t love the font choice but then I am picky about fonts and my son is not.  The narration sounds like a dad reading which is appealing to boys whereas I like that professional actor/narrator voice.  Nevertheless, at 99 cents, this is well priced and if your child opts for this instead of a game, that always make mom happy!

To buy this app at iTunes, just click on the image of the ebook.

Jul 29, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

iPhone/iPad/iPod ebook App: The Red Apple (in 9 languages! for ages 3-9)

The Red Apple ebook for iPhone, iPad and iPod by Winged Chariot.

This is a charming story that can be read or listened to in 9 languages!  That’s not a typo folks!  The ebook has language options for:  English, Turkish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Japanese.  I actually tried the app out in Spanish … you know, I have been studying for almost two years now.  Sadly, I have not studied hard enough because it was a little difficult for me to understand but it was helpful that the words are in Spanish and the female narrator has a beautiful accent worth emulating.  I will make my kids check it out in Spanish.

I reverted to the English version for the book review.  Interestingly, the narrator for the English version is male with a slight Brit accent which is lovely!  The illustrations are gorgeous and translate well even on my iPhone screen.  It’s such a lovely story about an elusive red apple high in a tree in winter in which rabbit has to enlist all his other animal friends to help him get the apple.  Even though the animals would eat each other in real life, they are friends in this book and get along happily.  They all even eat apples!  It’s a lovely and simple story.  Once you get the gist in one language, why not try it out in another that you are learning?!

It’s $1.99 at iTunes.  Perfect for ages 3-9.  Even older for those who want to test their foreign language skills!

Jul 19, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

iPhone/iPad/iPod app ebook: The Birthday (ages 2-6); great fun!

I opted for the English version of  the iPhone/iPad/iPod app ebook, The Birthday, by Sylvia Van Ommen and Maurice van der Bij. From the names of the authors, you won’t be surprised to find that the ebook comes with an option for Dutch but it also comes as a nice surprise that it’s in Japanese as well.

This is an adorable book and an even better ebook for anyone who isn’t familiar with the regular book because it has wonderful interactivity.  In the story, a young girl mouse is delivering the post (mail) and she walks around town giving letters to her friends who are various charmingly drawn animals.  The first stop is a rhino and polar bear couple, for example!  (It’s like an interracial animal couple.  I love that!)  The reader can  move the letter from the girl mouse to the mail recipient by sliding the letter across the screen and the letter moves physically to the recipient as well as makes a delightful noise.  The story then continues.

It turns out that today is the girl mouse’s birthday.  She is disappointed at the end of her delivery route because there is no birthday cards for her.  But as she returns home, there is a big surprise waiting for her.  And there are clues that her friends are up to something in the pages leading up to the end.  I’d suggest asking your child to guess the ending or ask them questions like,  ”Why do you think the fox is putting up coloring lights in backyard?!”

In short, the iPhone/iPad/iPod ebook, The Birthday, is a delightful ebook and my five-year-old son really loved it a lot!  I highly recommend it for the little ones, ages 2-5.  I also really like this ebook app publisher, Winged Chariot.  They send me codes for three of their apps and I’ve liked them all a lot!

To purchase the app, you can visit iTunes or their website.  It’s $2.99.

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Jul 09, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

If You Love That Dog by Creech, You’ll Love This Latina Version (ages 9-12)

Call Me Maria:  A novel in letters, poems and prose by Judith Ortiz Cofer

Maria

is a song.  As in,  I just Met a Girl Named Maria

and What Do You Do With A Problem Like Maria.

And she’s a poet.  A young girl.

Relocated from her home in San Juan, Puerto Rico

and separated from her mami.

She has become a barrio hija (daughter)

so that her papi can return to his homeland.

English is elusive but Maria resolves to

steal it.  Parabra by parabra (word by word)

English.  Spanish.  Spanglish.

Inspired by her English teacher and Pablo Neruda,

she becomes a poet:

“I confess,

I had to steal English,

because what I had

was never enough.

The sly taking

started as a word here,

a word there.

It was easy.

I slipped words

into my pockets,

my crime unnoticed

as the precision palabras

spilled out

of unguarded mouths,

and when they were left behind

like empty glasses and china

after a banquet,

or like familiar jewelry,

the everyday gold

tossed anywhere at bedtime.”

This novel is a thing of beauty; three parts:  poetry, prose and letters to mami who remains in Puerto Rico.  Short chapters, each a vignette or snippet of poetic prose or, actual poetry.  Told from Maria’s perspective, we, the reader, watch Maria blossom in her barrio neighborhood of New York City to become a poet.  I suspect this is Judith Ortiz Cofer’s own story as she, too, immigrated from San Juan and is now a creative writing professor.

If your child liked Sharon Creech’s novel’s Love That Dog or Hate That Cat, this is a Latina version.   I am surprised that this book didn’t win more awards.  It must have been a tough year for Newbery Awards that year because this novel is of that caliber.  [chapter book, ages 9-12]

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Jul 08, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

iPhone app ebook: Emma Loves Pink (lovely for little girls who love pink!)

Winged Chariot is the publisher of Emma Loves Pink by Piret Raud.  It is charmingly narrated by a little English girl whose voice reminds me of another lovely character in a book, Lola, of  Charlie and Lola fame.  The ebook is dedicated to “all little girls who love pink” … and any parent of a little girl went through that stage!  (But interestingly, it shifts by 1st grade to light blue.  Then to green/blue/turqouise.  And by 4th grade, the sweet little girls — or at least mine — go dark and grungy and will wear only brown, grey and black.)  So enjoy pink, parents.  It’s a lovely stage.

This is ebook is not interactive but the story is so cute and the narration so lovely that it will be a hit with any little girl who insists on wearing only pink.  There is a sticker application also that lets you move cute round pick “stickers” to your photo album so you can print out at another time.  The illustrations for this book (and ebook) are also lovely.

If you need more pink, these books were very popular with my girls during their pink phase:

by Nathanial Hobbie  by Victoria Kann

To buy either the ebook or the pink books, please click on the image of the book.  Thank You!

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Jul 01, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

iPhone/iPad/iPod Dr. Seuss’ One Fish, Two Fish plus Fun Game-Great!

“From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.”

Oceanhouse Media makes the best interactive eBooks, hands down.  They own the license for Dr. Seuss’ wonderful books and they actually improve the experience plus increase your child’s literacy by making the pictures on each frame interactive.  When you child touches any of the images, the word will float from the text (if the word is in the text) to the image.  If the narrator is reading the story, the story is NOT interrupted, however, the word will still float from the text to the image.  If the narrator is done reading the story, the narrator will also say the word.  Some of the images will still have a floating even if that particular word is not on that particular page.

So, your child is enjoying the story, because who doesn’t love the good Dr.  Seuss?  He or she is tapping the screen like mad (or at least my preschooler is) and enjoying the word repeat over and over (wump, wump, wump, wump).  Ok, it is driving you crazy but at least the narrator’s voice is quite pleasant.  Then your child is watching the word over and over and over — wump, wump, wump.  And seeing that the hump on the wump is being called “wump, wump, wump.”  And guess what?  Your child will soon recognize and say the word “wump.”  Yay, reading!  It’s a wonderful thing!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish also happens to be one of my son’s favorite books.  At $3.99 for the app, it’s more portable and less expensive than the actual book.  All Oceanhouse Media apps give you three options:  Read to Me, Read it Myself, and Auto Play.  It truly is a great reading experience!

I also had my son test out the game Up with a Fish.  He is probably in front of a screen waaay more than any 5-year-old should be and his thumbs are more dexterous than they ought to be from  hours of exercise.  He loves iPhone games, computer games, and DSi games for that matter.  Tower is a game he makes me play with him while waiting at a restaurant.  Up with a Fish has a similar stacking concept as Tower but it requires more precision with wobbling your iPhone just so  to align the objects.  And he just figured out that you DON’T want to stack Thing One or Thing Two because they crash your stack down.  Good to know, right?

In short, my son and I highly recommend both One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ebook iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app AND the Up with a Fish game.  Any app with Dr. Seuss by Oceanhouse Media is a winner!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish eBook is $3.99

The Up with a Fish game is $.99

To buy either app, please click on the image to buy directly from Oceanhouse Media

or buy through your iTunes store.

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Jul 01, 2010 | 0 comments View Post

iPhone/iPad App: Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Great App!

I must say this a lot but I LOVE Oceanhouse Media’s iPhone and iPad apps.  They have the exclusive license for Dr. Seuss and they do a bang up job every time to make a classic even better by adding INTERACTIVITY!  All the Dr. Seuss iPad and iPhone apps let you click on a picture and have the word float from the text to the image.  And the narrator says the word.  It’s a great feature for teaching little ones word recognition plus it’s fun!

I must confess that I am a great lover of Dr. Seuss and I’ve heard of Oh, The Places You’ll Go such that I actually thought I had read the book.  But, in fact,  I had not.  I read the iPhone app the other day while waiting for my elementary school pick up — I like to get there 15 minutes early to clear my head and get the one good parking space– and realized why this is the perfect gift for anyone in a transition mode.

This book speaks to kids but also to tweens and teens.  And twenty somethings.  And thirty somethings also.  And strangely, it’s perfect for adults in a mid-life crisis.  In short, it’s a story that gets better and better as you read it while growing long in tooth.  And, I think, the older you are, the more you appreciate this book.

As an iPhone app, the book is long.  That is because the good Dr. Seuss is dispensing advice on what happens when things go well as well as when things don’t go well (which is probably more than when things go well, particularly in this 1.5% GDP economy of ours — adjusted for stimulus package, of course.  But the portability of the app plus the lower cost of the app compared to the book outweighs the length of the app in my mind.

In short, give this book or iPad/iPhone as a gift to anyone:

  • Graduating from elementary school through grad school.
  • Particularly great for new college graduates as they face a tough row to how trying to get a job in this economy.
  • For anyone starting a new enterprise, whether it is to return to school or start a business.
  • For anyone facing adversity.
  • For anyone leaving or starting a new job.

It would make a nice gift paired up with the actual book (pop up or otherwise), and the graduation set is perfect for those going off to college.

To buy any of these items, please click on the image or go

to the Pragmatic Mom store.  Thank You!

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Jun 19, 2010 | 4 comments View Post

iPhone/iPad app: Great for Preschoolers!(Piffle’s ABC Animals)…

Piffle’s ABC Book of Funny Animals by Once Upon an App is a sweet ABC ebook with that rhymes, teaches the ABCs interactively, and is sung in an engaging and silly way that preschoolers adore.

I always prefer the interactive versions of ebooks; right, that is the point?!  This is what I love about Piffle’s ABC Book of Funny Animals:

  • The illustrations are old fashioned yet appealing.
  • The interactive puzzles work two ways.  Play the animal alphabet and choose the animal by picking the upper case letter OR play Find the Animal and then choose the word (which has the first letter in a different color and in upper case).
  • When you choose the correct answer, the app takes you to the poem about that animal that is sung in a silly and engaging way with a nice bongo drum background.  It’s very cute and fun.

My son played this app while we were waiting at a restaurant on vacation.  It was nice to have options for him to play by himself or for me to read the poem to him.  Of course, he insisted that I sing along in the same silly way!

To buy this iPhone or iPad app, please click on the image of the book.

Jun 01, 2010 | 1 comment View Post
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