The Boy and the Bears Read Out Aloud: More sight than sound
An interactive story for children ages 6-8 about a boy who visits a treehouse home to four bears fills the screen in The Boy and the Bears Read Out Aloud. The storybook features microphone support which lets children practice reading the story and they can tap on the words to hear the narrator pronounce them. The Boy and the Bears Read Out Aloud is an iPad only game for devices running iOS 7.1 or later.
Each of the four bears the boy meets in the story has its own personality trait, like a messy artist or a bear that doesn't like sharing. There are objects children can interact with such as a painting on the wall or even the moon. This adds some interest to the story, but overall the story feels rather short and not every object is able to be interacted with.
The narrator for the story is engaging and when children have trouble pronouncing the words in the story, tapping on the words provides a narration of that word. A downside to the The Boy and the Bears Read Out Aloud is that using the microphone for reading along does not work very well. Speaking into the microphone does not always register as correct and sometimes saying different words than those listed will let players continue on in the story.
There are three different sets of numbers displayed in the bottom left corner but there is no indication as to what those numbers are for. This stands out as weird for people viewing the storybook and with no way to get rid of those numbers, it is distracting for children trying to read along with the story.
The art style in The Boy and the Bears Read Out Aloud is very storybook like and there are nice details on each page of the book. These details, like a bird on a branch or a jar filled with fireflies, adds some depth to the environment and makes the story much more visually appealing.
The Boy and the Bears Read Out Aloud is free on the App Store and recommended as an interactive storybook for children ages 6-8. They can listen to more than a story by reading along with the microphone.
