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Four Little Critter interactive childrens books hit iOS
Mercer Mayer has been writing Little Critter books since the grown-up children were sleeping in cribs. My kids loved the series and had me read it to them hundreds of times. Little Critter is a hedgehog-looking animal that very small children can easily relate to as he goes about his simple adventures. Each of the over 200 books featuring Little Critter tells a very simple story, providing positive reinforcement for very small kids who sometimes need to be told how competent and good they are, even if they sometimes get things wrong. All of the books are whimsically illustrated and quite funny in a gentle and childlike manner. These are very simple books without any hard words and are very appropriate for little ones starting at about one year old. Each of them sells for US$1.99, and they are universal apps that work well on all iOS devices -- of course, they look better on the larger screen of an iPad. Oceanhouse Media has released four of the series so far, and I'm sure that, as time goes by, many more will show up. They all use the Oceanhouse engine that has become a standard in the industry. As in all the OM books, there are three options. AutoPlay is for the smallest of children. Each page is read as the built-in animation zooms now and then to highlight what's important on the page. The pages turn automatically as the sound effects play, and each word is highlighted as it's read. Read To Me provides a bit of autonomy; the young reader swipes the pages to turn them, and the text is read by a very young sounding voice. Touching the text block will cause it to be read again. Read It Myself deletes the narration until the text block is tapped in case the child has a problem with a word or two. In all three options, touching an object speaks what it is, and the word appears in a colorful animation. If the object appears in the text, the word in the text block is highlighted. This has served OM well for its series of Dr. Seuss and Berenstain Bear books, among others, and it's just as appropriate for Little Critter.
Just in time for Thanksgiving, The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks
Although the print book has been out for more than a year, The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks by Jan and Mike Berenstain (US$2.99) has just hit the App store in time for Thanksgiving. This is the tenth in the series of Bear books released by Oceanhouse Media, and it employs the same excellent engine used by all their books. Instead of having one picture per page, the engine allows for lots of panning and zooming, so one picture can be used for multiple pages. I consider this a good idea since kids like to swipe pages, and although there are only 35 pictures in the book, it will take 108 page swipes to get to the end. This cinematic approach is very appropriate for this type of book since it allows the virtual camera to uncover parts of larger graphics when they are appropriate, keeping the story and the reader's interest flowing. The story is appropriately simple. Papa Bear bartered some furniture for a few cases of Farmer Ben's best Apple Blossom honey along with Squanto the Turkey, who will stay at the farm until fattened and ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Sister Bear becomes attached to Squanto and wants to keep him as a pet. Her wish is eventually granted via a bit of Thanksgiving magic. %Gallery-108016%
Two new interactive eBooks for Halloween
Just in time for Halloween, Oceanhouse Media introduces two more of their excellent interactive children's storybooks. Both of them are spooky, but certainly not scary, being targeted to the four year old and up crowd. Both are about acceptance and teach a gentle lesson about not judging a book, an empty pair of pants or a pumpkin by its cover. The first is a short book by Dr. Suess titled What was I Scared of? (US$1.99). It only runs 22 pages so it's priced a dollar less than most of the Oceanhouse Media titles. In it, a very brave furry little guy meets up with a pair of empty pale green pants in the woods that keep popping up wherever he goes. He winds up being not as brave as he thought he was as he becomes more and more frightened of the disembodied pants. It turns out the pants were as scared of him as he is of them, and this is the beginning of their friendship. This book originally came out in 1961, and I have fond memories of reading it to my children. The soundtrack is terrific and as usual, tapping on objects highlight and speak words. The difference I noted between this and the other Oceanhouse Media books is that if you choose the Read To Me option, the young reader must turn the pages by themselves. In the other titles I've seen, this was done for you. The same is true with Spookley and I think was a great design choice. Authors note: I'm wrong on this last point. All the Oceanhouse Media books work the same way. I mistakenly confused the Read To Me with the Auto Play function. The Auto Play function does turn the pages automatically.
Holiday apps that'll make your Grinchmas merry
My wife is probably one of the biggest Grinch fans out there. Yes, we have Grinch holiday decorations and end up watching the movies several times throughout the holiday season. We're sitting at 3 times already... I'm praying we don't pass 5. It's not that I don't like The Grinch -- the animated or Jim Carrey version -- I'm usually not a multiple viewing kind of guy. To help fuel her love -- or obsession -- the folks over at Oceanhouse Media have partnered with Dr. Seuss Enterprises to fill our holiday minds with the Grinch. The first app in the iTunes App Store is called "Grinchmas" [iTunes Link]. It's a simple game where you choose to be a mean or a merry Grinch. I, of course, chose to be mean the first time around... I found myself throwing snowballs at noisy houses with a goal of keeping the noise meter from reaching its max. Next, I tried the merry side: I was given presents and a timer and challenged to toss the most presents before the time ran out. It was a fun little game, good for true Grinch fans and a quick time waster but it's definitely not something that you're gonna play for hours on end. They also created a pretty cool camera application that has a lot of pre-made greeting cards that you can email to your friends and family (the pic on this post is an example). It's called "Dr. Seuss Camera - The Grinch Edition" [iTunes Link] and is pretty awesome for sending fun cards to your friends. Unfortunately it's nearly impossible to line up the picture with the backgrounds if you're doing them yourself. It would have been nice of them to allow zoom and give you the ability to move your face to the correct spot: without that, you're pretty much limited to taking pictures of other people and sending them to your friends. My wife and I still had fun going through the different pictures and getting her to pose for the cards. For those of you who have yet to be Grinch'd, Oceanhouse Media also has produced a visually stimulating e-book (it does the original justice) to go along with the Grinch-themed holidays. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" [iTunes Link] is an interactive e-book that not only reads to you but plays sounds depending on what you touch on the screen. This is a great way to share a holiday classic with your kids. Read them the book, then let them play with the other two apps for a Grinch-tastic holiday. Don't forget to snag the movies too. My wife made me say that.
