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Yoto audio player for kids adds Disney and Pixar books
Two collections of bite-sized stories featuring the likes of 'The Lion King' and 'Toy Story 3' are now available.
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.
Hanna and Henri - The Robot: A story of robots and friends
Hanna & Henri – The Robot is an interactive storybook for children five years and under. The story focuses on Hanna, a young girl who has trouble telling time properly, and her journey to meet Henri so they can build a robot with Hanna's aunt. Hanna & Henri – The Robot features mini games the players can complete related to the events in the story to progress through the book. Hanna & Henri – The Robot is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 6.0 or later. The first mini game players experience is a dress up game where players pick out clothes for Hanna to wear, including cool sunglasses or a tiara. This mini game is basic, but still rather fun and it allows players to customize their experience with a good variety of options to choose from. There is also a matching mini game later on where players have to help Hanna put the correct fruit in the right basket. When players select a fruit, the narrator says what color and type of fruit it is, such as a green lime. This helps players associate colors with objects they may be familiar with, it also helps them be able to sort the fruit quickly. Later on in the game, players get create a robot in a similar fashion to the dress up game at the beginning. This allows players to create a very custom styled robot, which is quite a lot of fun. After building the robot, players get to program it in a quick mini game where player tap the color of the light lit up in the middle of the device on the screen. This mini game is easy once players understand how to play it as it is a little unclear that players need to not tap on the lit up button but instead, select another button of the same color. The white text on some of the backgrounds is hard read, which affects the benefits of using the game as a book children can read and not have to rely on a narrator. A darker background for the text area would be beneficial for making the text easier to read especially for younger readers. The art style in Hanna & Henri – The Robot has a classical storybook resemblance with a rich hand drawn feel to it. A lot of the objects on certain pages of the storybook are interactive which provides some added entertainment value to the story. Hanna & Henri – The Robot is US$3.99 on the App Store and recommended for parents of children five years or younger. The game and story keeps children entertained in an educational yet fun way with a good amount of replay value.
Daily iPad App: Cocoons and Caterpillars is an animated storybook starring Stella and Sam
As you can tell from my earlier posts, I often hand over my iPad to my children for learning apps and sometimes entertainment. One app that is both educational and enjoyable is Cocoons and Caterpillars: A Stella and Sam Adventure by zinc Roe. The iPad app is one in a series of apps that feature the popular cartoon characters Stella and Sam created by Marie-Louise Gay. This particular storybook app lets your child tag along with Stella, Sam and their friend Owen as they go on a backyard adventure with their dog Fred. It's a whimsical story about butterflies, cocoons and the imaginary things a trio of kids can dream up. In between the story are short, interactive games for kids to enjoy. There's a butterfly game that lets your child fly a butterfly from flower to flower, a bird game where your children can mimic the sounds of birds and a cloud game that lets your child find shapes in the sky. The best part of the app is the animation which looks fantastic on the iPad screen. The app captures the characters in the book and brings them to life just like the TV series that's produced by Radical Sheep and shown on Disney Junior Canada. My children loved all the characters, but were particularly entranced by the flowing red hair of nine-year-old Stella. Similar to other stories in the series, the Cocoons and Caterpillars app targets children seven and younger, though some eight and nine-year olds might identify with Stella who is the same age. The older kids will enjoy the story, but will breeze through the games which are appropriate for the younger set. The Cocoons and Caterpillars app is available for US$2.99, which is a reasonable price for an interactive, animated storybook that supports both French and English. There's also a story pack available for $6.99 which includes Cocoons and Caterpillars and four other Stella and Sam storybooks.
Barnes and Noble launches Nook kids iPad app
Barnes and Noble has just released its Nook kids app for the iPad. The app -- which is already available on B&N's Nook Color -- is essentially an e-reader with kid-friendly features, and enhanced storybook reading options, making full use of the Nook Color's (and now the iPad's) color LCD. Other features of the app include the two free books that come with download, and, of course, the fact that the Nook app will actually read to your kids for you, so that you can spend your time doing other, more important things. Like flirting with girls on Twitter. The Nook kids app is available for free in the app store right now. Full press release is after the break.
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.
Violet returns to the iPad in a wonderful interactive storybook
Violet is back in the second installment of the Violet series of children's interactive storybooks for the iPad, Violet and the Mysterious Black Dog (US$2.99) from My Black Dog Books. I liked the first one quite a lot, and I found this one to be even better. Once again, Allison Keeme does a phenomenal job of rendering the world of Violet and her family. Violet's world is attractive, colorful, whimsical, and consistent. Any child familiar with the first Violet book will immediately feel comfortable and get right into the narrative. Finding the mysterious black dog that was teased in the first book is the basis of this second volume. The story is simple and quite appropriate for ages four and up. Violet dons her mask and assumes her alter ego as Phantom Girl, going off in search of clues and hoping to find the black dog. When she inevitably does find the dog, a lesson is taught on how children should approach and deal with stray dogs, including a citation from the Humane Society. The 19-page book is a great technical improvement over the previous offering. In the first book, there was scant interactivity and the potential of children getting frustrated by having to tap on everything to get infrequent payoffs. In this book, the important tappable objects are defined by dotted yellow lines, kind of like a treasure map. When an object is tapped, it produces a detailed enlargement of the object. For slightly older or more inquisitive kids, there are unmarked tappable items on the majority of pages that kick off actions or sounds, like a lamp lighting or the buzzing of bees. There are also nice little animations that often appear, such as the bouncing of Violet's little sister's ball, or the mysterious dog popping his head into the page. I especially enjoyed one page where you are told to help Violet find clues, but the child can find a clue that Violet doesn't find, bringing the reader deeper into the story and adding a level of interactivity and involvement that was missing in the first book. Another welcome addition is that there is a speaker icon in the upper left corner of each page. When tapped, it plays a recording of Allison Keeme reading the page, and her reading is excellent.
Tons of iPad app releases on the App Store now
Embargoes on every app in the iPad's app store broke this morning, and there's almost too many new iPad apps to write about. But worry not, dear readers -- we've sifted through the flood of press releases in the inbox this morning, and we're here to bring you the brightest and best iPad app news we've heard so far. Board game maker Days of Wonder is releasing Small World, a virtual board game for the iPad, for just US$5. Telltale Games craftily dodged telling us about any development for the iPhone or the iPad at Macworld this year, but they've gone ahead and released the latest episode of Sam and Max on the platform anyway, as a $10 app. SugarSync has released a version of their remote data sharing app for free on the iPad. Diner Dash has gone "HD" with Diner Dash: Grilling Green, a new $5 version of the game "designed from the ground up exclusively for the iPad." See Here Studios has a 3D storybook called The Wrong Side of the Bed available for $2.99. You'll need red/cyan glasses, but you can actually order them (with free shipping in the US) inside the app itself. Chillingo has launched a lineup of fourteen different apps (which is probably the most we've seen from any single company so far) including Cogs HD, Minigore HD, and Sword of Fargoal Legends. Impressive launch lineup. Zen Bound 2 has finally arrived as an iPad app -- it features those revamped graphics for $7.99 on the new device. Freeverse has four different apps running, including Flick Fishing HD and their new game CastleCraft, a freemium MMO. Smule has released Magic Piano, a virtual piano/game/musical experience that's launching for $2.99. Lots (and we mean lots) more iPad app releases after the break. What a launch lineup this thing has!
Prince of Persia: The Penny Arcade storybook
Penny Arcade is known for creating promotional art for upcoming games they are excited about. Having worked with Ubisoft in the past, it was no surprise when we heard Penny Arcade was working on a Prince of Persia themed story. Taking things in a slightly new direction, Penny Arcade's Prince of Persia tale has been captured into a storybook video for you to watch. Sit back with a warm cup of hot chocolate (or whatever you kids drink these days) and check out this short story the recounts a familiar legend from the new Prince of Persia.
