I finally jumped in to get one of the more “interactive” children’s books. Even though the reviews on this book said it wasn’t that interactive, the storyline seemed more in line with a 5 year old than the other options (Alice in Wonderland and The Little Mermaid – though I’ll get those too eventually). I just wanted to see if the genre had legs with our little guy.
Violet’s a young girl with a secret identity and uses that secret identity to explore the world in new ways. It certainly opens up the character for a whole slew of sequels. And from Sal’s reaction, he’s a fan. We did notice that there were some pages that had nothing to interact with, which was a little disappointment, but it also made the pages with interactions that much more fun. Lemons into lemonade.
The story itself was pretty good. It had a lot of good conversation jump off points for me and my son. We were able to talk about different “explorations” that Violet could have chosen of a similar vein…and one could try and guess what other explorations her page of notes could lead to as well. Plus, he was engaged enough in the story to try and guess what would happen next, before we “turned the page”. The story was short, yet thought provoking. Plus it encouraged the idea of experimenting with one’s environment – she’s a character I wouldn’t mind my son having as a friend.
Probably the biggest issue was the typeface again. It’s stylized and looks nice and isn’t a problem for an adult reader to get through. But the white color threw Sal off for a while, as well as the rounded edges in the font. But he made it through the book without getting too frustrated. He was quite pleased with the whole experience at the end actually.
So far, we’re fans of Violet, hoping that her next adventures are just as exciting and hopefully, a bit more interactive.
Violet: $2.99
Thanks for joining WMCIR! I have never tried iBooks yet (of course, I don’t count my own Kindle reader app with Kindle books). I guess I’ll ask Cat for a test drive 🙂
Well, it’s not part of iBooks proper. It’s just another app, that happens to be a book/story. So far, I don’t think we’ve experimented with children’s iBooks. I think for the level he’s reading at, the interactive nature of the application is a more engaging approach.
Congratulations for your blogs!
You’ve doing a very good job with your reviews.
I would like to show you this app, maybe you’d like to comment anything about it. It’s called TOUCHYBOOKS, and it’s free:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id379892783?mt=8
“TouchyBooks is the newest FREE application for kids available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It’s their very own bookstore where they can purchase appropriate books that are interactive, fun and extremely educational. These books provide an innovative reading resource.
With TouchyBooks you can find interactive versions of publications from well known editorials such as Planeta, Bilingual Reader and Susaeta. You can also find lively adaptations of classic tales such as Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel, just to name a few. Lastly, there are original works that are written and designed by a talented group of professional artists and educators.”
I hope you like it! feel free to contact me if you need more info! thanks in advance 🙂