The Reading Game

We have an amazing children’s department at our local library. During the summer all of the libraries in our area join up for summer reading and the kids can earn prizes for daily reading. One of my children’s favorite prizes is the rodeo tickets and let me tell you it is quite the experience to take your kids to a rodeo on the same night that everyone else in the area takes their kids. The plus side is you know yours won’t be the only ones crawling over and under the bleachers. It’s a loud and long night and we rarely make it through to the bull riding but the goal of earning those tickets keeps my kids buried in books for the first two months of summer. Unfortunately the program ends before summer does so we usually have one last month where no one is reading much at all. I’m sure I’m not the only mom who struggles to keep her kids reading during the summer. We’re blessed with a great community program but I know that not everyone has access to something like that. About a week ago I was sent an email about a free app called The Reading Game. It works as a reading tracking/incentive program and I thought the email was perfectly timed for summer so I wanted to try it out.

The Reading Game has a beautiful feel to it. The illustrations that are displayed in the background look like they’ve come straight out of a fairytale. It’s very simple to use the app. Your child enters in the title of the book that they are reading and it’s number of pages. The next time they return they can record the page number that they are on. The screen tells them how many pages they have left and what percentage of the book this is. As they use the app they will be unlocking rewards. The rewards are silly animations and sounds and there are oodles of them to earn. I thought they were crazy and borderline annoying but my kids felt the complete opposite way. Surprise!

I really like the concept behind The Reading Game and I am all for anything that keeps kids reading. I like the way it keeps tracks of the pages that you have read and how many you have left. My only suggestion for this app is to add in a way to keep track of different reader profiles. I can’t figure out if there’s a way to do this or not. Right now I see all of our books in one list and my kids share the unlocked rewards. It’d be nice to have separate profiles but that’s just a minor quibble. Overall I think this is a fantastic free resource for parents.

Price when Reviewed: FREE

Seller: Legend Apps