Bottom Line: Elmo Loves You is a pop-up book in app form filled with our favorite Sesame Street characters and some of the things they love. Don’t fool yourself, though; calling it a pop-up book doesn’t do it justice. Your preschooler will delight in discovering everything going on in each scene. And of course, Elmo is always there to let you know he loves you.
If you’d like to download Elmo Loves You from Story Toys Jr. ($3.99, iPad/iPhone), please use the handy link below so they’ll know who sent you:
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No ads or in-app purchases, but there are external links in protected parent area.
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At first glance, Elmo Loves You appears to be a fairly normal book app . . . until you turn the first page. Out pops Elmo in a pop-up book come to life. Each page is a bright and happy world full of Sesame Street characters doing things they love. Elmo guides us through each scene, telling us about the things that each person or animal loves, pausing along the way to tell us what he loves. And you know what? Elmo loves YOU.
We learn that the birds love making noise and babies love music. By tapping on each character we can interact with them and see them playing music or singing or dancing. We visit Bert in the park with the pigeons and a drift of pigs rolling in the mud. There are penguins in the snow and roosters starting to crow. Each of them is doing the things they love.
We get to see many other inhabitants of Sesame Street doing things they love. Of course, no visit to Sesame Street would be complete without counting with the Count. Along the way we continue to see that Elmo loves YOU!
I was so pleasantly surprised by the technical depth of this app. Each page bursts to life with movement that is intensified by the app’s use of dynamic perspective. As the user moves the iPad around, the scene jumps out in 3D glory and gives life to each of the characters. There are nice little touches that really add to the experience, like the ability to turn pages either by tapping on the arrows or actually "turning" each individual page, giving it a more "book-like" feel.
In true Sesame form, the parent section is filled with suggestions to help parents maximize the learning possibilities this app offers and links to Sesame Street clips on YouTube that give parents even more opportunities to discuss feelings and emotions with their kids.
There are so many wonderful things going on in Elmo Loves You. The presence of all of the familiar characters we love will keep kids engaged and all of the activity will continue to delight them on repeated viewings. The tools offered to parents will help them talk to kids about emotions and open up lines of communication with their preschoolers.
Most of all, though, I found this to be technically superior to most other children's storybooks that are on the app market right now. Every detail is polished and every option that I normally look for is there. They even covered my pet peeve of being able to mute background music (but who on Earth would want to mute the Sesame Street music?). Elmo Loves You would be a wonderful addition to the app aresenal of any toddler parent. Even at a pricetag of $3.99, I highly recommend it.
This app is definitely one of my new top picks, with a very strong 4.5 stars.
*****
Kelli is starting to have visions of sugarplums. SmartAppsForKids.com was paid a priority review fee to complete this review in an expedited manner.
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