I have been AWOL here for a few days. I was at the Mom 2.0 Conference in New Orleans from Thursday until today. I got to see a lot of my blogger friends, went to some interesting sessions, and had some great conversations about blogging, social media, and motherhood.
My reading is all messed up because I forgot to bring my current book with me – THE HORROR! So I am now currently reading three books and listening to one on audio – very unlike me. I am usually a monogamous reader. I started Meg Wolitzer's The Uncoupling on my way home, having left Susan Barr-Toman's When Love Was Clean Underwear at home (and I also started Wench a week ago). Sigh. And I am halfway done with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on audio. Hopefully I will finish these books soon and get some reviews up. I am on vacation this week, but with Passover and a trip to the west coast, my blogging may be sporadic again.
And now for something a little different… I would like to occasionally review iPad apps for kids here on EDIWTB. I am starting off with The Three Little Pigs, an interactive storybook from Nosy Crow. The Three Little Pigs is adorable. The illustrations are bright and detailed, and kids can opt to read the book on their own or have the book read to them. My daughter is a pretty advanced reader and she chose to read it on her own. If you tap on the different characters, they say new things, so it's fun for kids to explore and find all of the different text on the page. Also, the animals do different actitivies when you tap on them, like build their houses, jump, flip, etc. so the book is very interactive.
When I asked my daughter how she liked the app, she said, "It's very cute! I liked it a lot." It probably kept her interested for about 20 minutes. The downside is that once you've gone through the whole app, kids may lose interest. Perhaps emerging readers can toggle between having the book read and reading themselves, but advanced readers may be done with it after one or two readings. At $7.99, the app is too expensive to use just once or twice.
Overall, I was impressed with the quality of this app and its visual appeal. I also liked the British accent on the narrator. My daughter was thoroughly engaged and entertained while she was using it. I recommend this app to anyone with emerging to solid readers, and look forward to what Nosy Crow comes out with next. I do think that the price is steep for a kids' app (but it is in line with a good kids' book).
FTC disclosure: thank you to Nosy Crow for giving me a free download of this app for review purposes.