eBooks for kids take a step backward in 3-Little Pigs
The field of interactive children's eBooks has become quite sophisticated over the last number of months. Products from Oceanhouse Media and My Black Dog Books are quite impressive and offer children four years and up a satisfying interactive experience as they traverse their way through well-designed stories with lots of animation and variations to keep things interesting. It's become the norm that when a child taps on something in one of these books, he or she gets immediate feedback on the item of interest.
3-Little Pigs (US$3.99) for the iPad is a major step backward in a field that has been constantly improving. When I first downloaded it a few days ago, the price was $6.99 and quickly dropped. Even at $3.99 I consider it too expensive by half. What you get looks like a very rough first draft of what could be a good eBook. A good example of the rawness of the app is that when you launch it, you have no idea what to do next. I contacted the publishers and was told that you need to tap on the bottom right corner of the screen and that this problem will be fixed in the next revision. That's fine, but I'm reviewing the current version and kids would be left frustrated and unhappy with not knowing what to do. How hard would it have been to add a graphic telling the kids where to tap?
The instructions are given on the second page, using the standard tap right to progress, tap left to go back and tap on objects to interact. Double tapping on the bottom brings up a ribbon allowing you to go to any particular page. Options are given to turn the music on or off, and to have the words appear in either English or Slovak. The English needed a decent proofread, since if you're teaching a child to read, text like "I want to build a house my- self." is not helpful. It's also not very helpful that the app only runs in portrait mode.
The amount of interaction is pitiful. Tapping on the wolf on just about any page has the wolf saying "Yummy Yummy". The same goes for the pigs who either oink in a few different voices, or make piggy cries for help. With rare exception, that's all you get -- the same utterances over and over again. The animation is minimal. On many pages, an animation plays when entering but that's about it. On some other pages there is persistent animation, like blowing leaves or the rolling of the wolf's eyes. Only on one page do the pigs move forward or backward on the screen, but not necessarily when the pigs are tapped. You can tap anywhere on the page to have this happen. There is a little bit more to be found, but not much. There is no option for having the story read aloud, which is another big problem for this sort of app.
It's not all bad though. I did admire the music, which changes every few pages, and the graphics are admirable with a lot of shadows adding dimensionality. The only difference in the story is that the wolf looks like a mean leather jacketed Fonzie with big teeth and rolling eyes. Otherwise everything else is just as you'd expect.
So the app contains a public-domain story with no cost to pay royalties, poor interaction, instructions on the second page (which is no help), no narration, and repetitive sounds. In a market so full of riches, I would look elsewhere, pay less, and wind up with a far more satisfying experience for little readers.
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