Bottom Line: This delightful and engaging ebook version of a classic Curious George tale is perfect for young readers. Brought to you by the developers at Tribal Nova, this “iRead With” ebook has many features that make it an excellent option to support literacy learning using mobile technology.
If you would like to download Curious George and the Birthday Surprise (iPad only, $2.99), please use this link to support Smart Apps For Kids:
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I have to admit, I’m not always a fan of ebooks as I much prefer to hold a printed text in my hand. There are some apps, however, that use the technology in such an engaging way that I've had to change my mind. Curious George and the Birthday Surprise is one such app. It offers interactive opportunities for both children and adults that make reading the story a different experience from reading just the printed book.
First, you should know that this app looks and sounds just like a Curious George book. The illustrations and text are taken from the original. With a plain white background, the illustrations and text are easy to see and appreciate. On
each page, there is one word that is highlighted with a larger font and brighter color. This “living word” literally comes to life through animation and sound effects when tapped. Each word is a key word in the story (i.e. George, cake, birthday, mixer, and so on) and their animations help deepen the child’s understanding of both the text and the word meaning. I appreciated that the only animation on each page was the living word, as sometimes children are distracted by the “bells and whistles” that multiple animations can bring. These animations added meaning, and thus were not a distraction.
One of my favorite parts of this app is that it offers the opportunity to record one’s voice reading the
living word. I love the personalization that this can offer, not to mention the sheer awesomeness of a kid hearing his own voice in an app. Even better is the opportunity to play in the storybook theater after reading the story. The child can pick a background and then characters to play with. My son picked the kitchen setting and added George, a dog and the cake. Then he moved the characters around while recording his voice telling a story about the dog attacking the cake and George jumping on the dog’s tail. I appreciated that there was an opportunity to retell or expand the story using familiar settings and props.
Finally, I am always encouraging parents to sit down and interact with apps alongside their children. This app helps parents by having a Read & Talk option in which parents are given questions or comments to make on each page to start a discussion about the text. Some of the questions felt a little closed (i.e. “Look! That brown cake is almost the same color as Goerge!”) and I was worried that my son might not respond. However, when I shared that comment with him, he proceeded to name other brown things in the picture. Also in the settings section are some nice tips for parents about ways to engage your child while reading.
As with any high-quality app, there are various settings that allow the user to personalize the experience. The living word interactivity, music, sound and recording can be turned off. And the language can be set to English, French or Spanish. In addition, there are various choices for the parent and child icon used in the Read & Talk option.
Overall, this app is a high-quality app that offers experiences for children and parents to read, engage and play with literacy concepts in ways a printed book can't accomplish alone.
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Emily B. is glad there is still at least one literary character out there from her childhood that she can still share with her kids. She is a bit baffled by some of the newer characters and cartoons her kids seem to enjoy. SmartAppsForKids.com was paid a priority review fee to complete this review in an expedited manner.
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