The iPhone Mom

There are some children’s television shows (they shall remain nameless) that I just can’t stand. My poor deprived children go to school and tell their friends that they’re not allowed to watch them and they’re always at a loss for an answer when their friends ask them why. “Because my mom thinks they’re stupid” isn’t always the best answer. Thank goodness for clever shows that my kids like to watch that I don’t mind sitting through too. Super Why! is one of those shows. I love the colors, the characters and the way they’ve put a twist on classic tales. You can also actually learn something from watching it!

The folks at PBS Kids have been busy putting out apps and they do a good job of making sure they capture the essence of the shows. The Super Why! app is no different. It has four different games, each featuring a different show character.

-Super Why Story Saver: Here you help Super Why finish pages in a story by filling in the missing words based on an illustration.

-Wonder Red’s Rhyming Time: Wonder Red needs your help matching up some rhyming words for her basket.

-Princess Presto’s Wands Up Writing: This game asks you to help Princess Presto spell words. She shows you the letters and tells you the sound she’s looking for. When you choose the correct letter you use her wand to write the letter on the screen. This was my favorite game.

-Alpha Pigs Lickety Letter Hunt: Alpha Pig needs help spelling words too. He tells you what letters to look for and you help him find them on the path home.

While you’re playing the different games you’ll also be collecting stickers. You can visit your sticker book and use them to create sticker scenes. I think that the Super Why! app stays very true to the television show. It runs smoothly and does a nice job teaching preschoolers reading skills.

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: PBS Kids

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

But That Wasn’t the Best Part tells the tale of the International Banana Festival’s Grand Parade. The story does a great job describing all the sights and sounds of a parade. Some are traditional and some uniquely banana-ish. The narrator does a nice job and the sound effects liven things up quite a bit. You can choose to have the story read aloud to you or read it to yourself. I can honestly say that I didn’t see the ending coming and I was a little surprised at what the best part turned out to be. I don’t want to spoil it for you but it doesn’t involve circus animals, motor vehicles, clowns, balloons, magic tricks or money falling from the sky. It does involve something you can eat.  A child will probably love a story that ends with something you can eat.  And as I’m thinking about this…our neighboring town has an annual Dairy Days parade in the summer. During the parade they hand out little milk jugs and that is my kids favorite part.

Price when Reviewed: $2.99

Seller: English

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

1 Little Boy is a storybook app that tells the tale of a little boy who goes for a skip down the country road and finds some friends along the way. Each time he meets a new friend the app counts them up…one little boy, two a royal toad, three a country mouse, etc. The little boy goes for quite a skip and ends up in all sorts of places. There are two types of pages/screens to this story. The first shows the little boy meeting someone new. On this page you can tap on the characters and they’ll do or say something. The second type of page is a screen where the boy and his friends are skipping down the road. At first the screen is blank but if you tap on it the boy and friends will appear, one at a time. The app will count them as you tap. When they’re all accounted for you can tap on them to hear what they “say”.

1Little Boy a cute story and I like the fact that it teaches counting skills. My only suggestion would be the addition of audio to the very last page of the story. There’s text to read but unlike the other pages in the app it’s not read aloud and it feels just a little bit disjointed at the end. Be sure to take a close look at the last illustration. It took me a minute to realize what I was looking at and it’s a cute twist involving the cast of friends the little boy has met throughout the day.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Touchoo

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Nursery Rhymes are a subject where I’ve shortchanged  my children. They’re just not something that I read much of when my kids were little. I know that they’ve learned a few in school but I’d be surprised if they knew about Old King Cole and they’d be shocked to learn about poor Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater’s wife.  Well here’s an app that  can help out any other nursery rhyme deficient mothers out there. The Mother Goose Classics app currently features nine classic nursery rhymes. They are Humpty Dumpty, Jack Be Nimble, Jack & Jill, Hickory Dickory Dock, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Hey Diddle Diddle, This Little Piggy and Pat a Cake. There is also a free version that features three rhymes.

The characters from the nursery rhymes appear on your screen and you tap on the one that you’d like to hear more about. (Only three characters show up on the screen at a time so you’ll need to scroll to the left and right.) Each nursery rhyme is presented over several screens. Tap on the text to hear it read aloud. Each rhyme has some animation to it and if you tap on the screen you can watch more things happen.

If you’re looking for a good introduction to Nursery Rhymes this isn’t a bad way to go and the animations are humorous. Personally, $1.99 for only nine rhymes feels a little high to me. Hopefully more rhymes will be added in future updates.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: Raizlabs Corp.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Build a Brag Book Story is an interesting app. It takes a photo of your baby and their personal details and puts them into a story. You start by adding in your child’s photo (take a picture or use one from camera roll/library). Then you’ll go through a series of questions ranging from your child’s name, to the time of their birth to the names of their grandparents. Sometimes you will see an empty picture frame on the screen. Tap on the plus sign to add a photo to the frame. You can add more than one photo for each frame.  When you’ve entered in all the information your story is ready. It’s a general story about a brand new baby coming home to meet the family, but it’s personalized with your child’s information and the pictures you added. There are three basic story templates to choose from but if you don’t see what you’d like you can email your text to the developers. The text has to work with the illustrations they’ve provided but they will create a new story template that will be available in their next update. Now that is customization. You can change the size of text, auto turn of the pages and how the pages look then when they turn (curl, fade, slide, etc.). I really like the idea of this app and I’m very glad you can add in personal photos. The illustrations that go along with the brag book are cute but my kids are always excited when they see a photo of themselves on my phone.

Price when Reviewed: Free

Seller: Scott Singer

The folks at StoryBoy have released several stand alone ebook title. These are stories that you can find in iTunes instead of exclusively via the StoryBoy app. The story that I tried out is Erika Knows Green: Water Conservation. It does a nice job explaining water conservation on a child’s level. I was even reminded of a few things that I had forgotten. The book is read aloud to you but you can follow the words if you want to read along. The illustrations are fun and do a nice job complimenting the story and adding in humor. This is the first in a series of books that will feature Erika as she helps kids learn ways they can help the environment.

**I forgot I’ve got 5 free codes for this app. First 5 comments win them!

Price when Reviewed: $.99

Seller: StoryBoy

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

King Midas & The Princess and the Pea are two storybook apps from Decode Entertainment. It had been awhile since I read these two stories so it was fun to get a refresher. On a side note, I enjoy the tale of the Princess and the Pea but part of me wonders if I was the Queen would I be so eager to take on a complaining Princess as a daughter-in-law? Yes, I know she couldn’t sleep because of those darn peas but to complain every morning? Why not be grateful you had a bed to sleep in at all? Obviously, my queenly empathy is somewhat lacking.

I did enjoy both of these storybooks. The illustrations are clean and professional. Each one has a slight animation to it and you can tap on the screen to make things happen. From what I could tell there seemed to be more interaction on the Princess screens. The stories are narrated by children and they do a fantastic job using just the right amount of expression. You can choose to listen to the narrators or record your own version. The apps allow you to record four versions of the story. That’s enough for each of my children which means no tears because little brother recorded over big sister’s tale.  It’s the little things that make all the difference.

I forgot to use my promo code when I downloaded The Princess and the Pea, which means I’ve got one to give away. First parent to leave a comment gets to surprise their daughter (or son!) with a brand new princess tale.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99 (each sold separately)

Princess & the Pea

King Midas

 Seller: Decode Entertainment, Inc.

Last year Oceanhouse Media brought Dr. Seuss’s Grinch to the iPhone. Just last week they released an iPhone version of “The Cat in the Hat” and “Dr. Suess’s ABC”. This weekend I tried out the Dr. Suess’s ABC app because that is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. It’s a fun twist on an alphabet book and as far as Dr. Seuss books go, the words are easy enough to pronounce. The book’s illustrations translate well to the iPhone and I like the way Oceanhouse has kept the story’s text in different sizes, just like it is in the book. You can read the story to yourself or listen to a narration. The narrator does a great job and there are fun sound effects that add to the story.  The app itself is simple to navigate. Swipe the screen to turn pages. Tap on words to hear them said and tap on pictures to learn words from the page. I love having this classic on my phone. Well done Oceanhouse!

Price when Reviewed: $3.99

Seller: Oceanhouse Media

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Mandy & Andy Renovating is a story about two cats who travel with their Uncle Tobias and friend, Mortimer Mouse, to help Hermie the Hermit remodel his cottage. Things don’t go exactly as planned and it turns out Hermie the Hermit hasn’t been as much of a hermit after all. The fun in this storybook apps comes from the hidden things on each page. As you go through the story you’ll want to watch for things that sparkle or change color. That’s an indication that something is hiding in that spot on the screen. Tap on the spot and discover what’s there. After you’ve seen all the pages and found all the secrets the story ends on a happy note with some great problem solving from Mandy & Andy.

The app allows you to read the story to yourself or to listen to it read aloud. It features three languages – English, French & Chinese. When you change the language both the written words and those spoken aloud are switched to the new language. Many & Andy Renovating isn’t the longest storybook app that I’ve tried but I liked it’s interactive twist. Having things hidden on the pages lets readers get involved with the story instead of simply listening to it.

Price when Reviewed: $1.99

Seller: BeiZ Ltd.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this app for review purposes.

Seb’s Tail is a storybook app offered by Kiwa Media. (They refer to it as a QBook.) This app has some of the more traditional features of a storybook app, as well as a couple of twists. Here are the app’s highlights:

You can listen to a read aloud version of the story or you read the story to yourself. It’s easy to switch between the two modes without having to go back to a main menu. Tap on the screen and a control bar appears. This is how you turn the page, record yourself, exit the book, etc. I suggest visiting the information section the first time you use the app to get a feel for what the buttons mean. You can also record yourself as the narrator. My kids go crazy for this type of feature.

When you choose to read the story to yourself you can tap on the words as you go along and then hear them read aloud individually. If you slide your finger from left to right the words that you touch will be read. If you press and hold a word it’s read and then spelled out. As the words are being read they’re highlighted and they literally jump up from the page. I liked being able to control the pace of the story with my finger.

The QBook allows you to color the book’s pages and then use them as the illustrations if you like. To access the coloring book feature tap on the screen and you’ll see a coloring icon on the control bar. To use your illustrations you’ll need to visit the app’s settings (main screen).

The app includes a memory game based on the story and a word search. The level of difficulty can be adjusted in the app’s settings.

Several languages are offered including English, Spanish, Portuguese and Maori. When you choose a new language it changes both the text and the narration. Very nice!

Finally, a simple thing but it made me smile. When you first open the app it asks you who the book belongs to. Enter in your child’s name and from then on, when you start up the QBook the first screen says “This Book Belongs to…” It’s a bookplate for your app. Darling.

I tried out the lite version of Seb’s Tail. It has only the first few pages of the story, a teaser really, but it gave me a great feel for what the full QBook would be like. From what I’ve been told Kiwa Media will soon be turning children’s books from Penguin into QBooks. When I hear more I’ll be sure to let you know.

Price when Reviewed: Full app – $4.99, Lite app – Free

Seller: Kiwa Media