This is a 12 screen/page short story about a little boy (Zanny) who can’t sit still. The story is designed to bring up, or illustrate the topic of children who can’t focus- who might have special needs. Besides the story, a game called The Extra Special Feelings Game lets you paste expressions over a child’s empty face, to match the feeling being described. This is designed for kids with Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and PDD, to help them recognize feelings and facial expressions.
This is one of a series of ebooks and activities; each book in the series focuses on one child and one symptom, not a disorder. This is done so that any child can play with the app, to better understand another child’s diagnosis. Other books include Little Lily’s Touch Book and Timmy Tastes Textures. The books were written by Pamela Sloane-Bradbury for her son, Oscar, who has developmental disabilities. Illustrations are by Allison Garwood. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This app is designed to help children learn to write their own letters and words using the correct sequence and strokes by tracing uppercase and lowercase letters. Features include: meets some of the basic reading and writing Common Core State Standards for kindergarten such as the introduction and mastery of print and word recognition concepts; create 36 custom name tags with your own pictures and recordings to personalize learning for your child; animations upon completion of each letter or word; more than 100 common sight/Dolch words; records student progress as word cards are completed; and a fingerpaint mode that shows completed letters in child’s own handwriting. There are no advertisements or in-app purchases. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This app features 26 letter-themed animated routines. It is especially designed to introduce children to various art techniques. For example, the letter V is made out of popping popcorn, which morphs into a volcano. After they watch the short video, children can trace the letter, uncovering a variety of interesting textures. Developed by 1K Studios in collaboration with designer Ulrike Kerber. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Part of the Brainy Fables series of storybook apps, Uxmal is an English/Spanish story about a young boy, Uxmal, who is growing up in the Mayan world. The story was written by Franco Soldi, illustrated in blue and white by Pedro Bascon. In the story, a local carnival brought together the county’s strongest men to compete in the famous pyramid challenge, but none of them succeeds in throwing the coconut over the pyramid. But, then a little boy named Uxmal is able to do it, and changes the history of his town. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Classic paper doll play comes to the iPad, complete with well-stocked libraries of shoes, hair styles, dresses, tops, bottoms and accessories. After you choose a doll, you pick a name and a setting (such as a barn or a wedding) then you start mixing and matching. Content includes 120 stickers, eight background scenes including a wedding, beach, shopping and a disco. Each scene can be enhanced with things, such as, dogs, butterflies and ice cream cones. In addition, you can name each doll. A child’s work can be saved as a photo. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Featuring a simple art style and a compelling story about a trouble-making dog, Quem Soltou o Pum? (Who let Fart out?) is proof that you don’t need a lot of bells and whistles to tell a story on the iPad. The story is simple — a much loved dog keeps making a mess, but the dialog (in Portuguese) is full of puns. The creative writing combined with the simple but compelling interactivity earned the title an honorable mention in the 2012 BolognaRagazzi Digital Prize. Too bad it doesn’t cost less (the high price earned it a lower rating on our scale). Teaches: reading, Portugese. Companhia das Letras. www.companhiadasletras.com.br, $8.99. Best for ages 3-up.
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How’d you like to stick the head of a shrimp onto a rhinoceros? Now you can, with this mix-and-match app from Mexico. By swiping the head, middle and tail, you can combine the creatures until you get what you want. Then, you can color your animal with a set of art tools. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
How many circles can you find in a puzzle? This “I SPY” like shape finding game contains 12 puzzles. The objective is to touch the shapes to find them. For example, you might have to spot all the squares in a construction site. The app provides simple explanations of eight geometric shapes including circles, diamonds, ovals, rectangles, semi-circles, squares, trapezoids, and triangles. The app also reinforces counting from 1-20, because each shape is counted as it is discovered. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This interactive comic introduces “environmentally aware” themes to children, through the adventures of three friends named Flash, Graham and Melody Tulip. The 26 screen story is about the friends search to learn the identity of the Phantom Clickerist — the person (or creature) who keeps turning out the lights. The creature, turns out to be a polar bear, who wants to prevent global warming. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
The first in a series of Disney Classics storybook apps, this is the story of three children (Wendy, John and Michael) who enter Neverland with Peter Pan and Tinker Bell. Children can touch some of the illustrations to hear them labeled. Some of the pages have typical jigsaw puzzles, games of concentration, or coloring pages. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Perfect Pitch Piano (PPPiano) is designed to teach you to play piano by ear, by playing a copy-cat style game with your iPad. Your screen displays a large, responsive keyboard that is just over an octave in size (17 keys) and sounds exactly like a piano. The app starts easy, playing a one or two note phrase and then waits for you to answer. The lessons get progressively harder; wrong answers give you another chance, depending on the settings. You can adjust the activity so that you can make as many as six mistakes. You can also change the pitch and tempo. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
You might as well admit it; everyone “goes to the bathroom.” We have to brush our teeth, wash our hands and clothes, take baths and clip our nails. This app is designed to bring up these sometimes touchy topics, by way of a rather wild looking child named Pepi. You start by choosing whether Pepi is a boy or a girl, and then are shown four icons (a washing machine, toothbrush, bath and toilet paper). You then help Pepi go through each routine, one step at a time. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The Numberlys comes from the studio that created The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Lawrence Lessmore, directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg of Moonbot Studios. You start with a story, told by a narrator with a thick sounding accent, who tells the story of a grey society that has no letters or words — only numbers. As you swipe your way through the story, you help a small group of friends convert numerals like “8″ into letters like “B” or “R” by shooting missiles, slicing the letters in half, bouncing on trampolines, spinning turntables, and so on. There’s a routine per letter, giving you plenty of surprises. The art mixes grey industrial art styles from the 1930′s (a Metropolis look), with a totalitarianism, Big Brother theme. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Designed to help children learn and practice the fundamentals of reading both analog (with hands) and digital (with numerals) clocks, this app drills children with five monsters who have eyes that watch your fingers move on the screen. Children can unlock up to 15 photos of the monsters by completing the three levels of difficulty for each character and earning 5 stars. In the easy level, time is kept on the hour and half-past the hour as an introduction to telling the time. In the medium level, time is tested at 5 minute intervals, introducing the concepts of “past”, “to”, “quarter past”, etc. Getting an answer wrong will remove a star you’ve already earned. The hard level will test children across the full range of the clock, but in this round you have to earn 5 stars in a row to please the monsters. If you get a question wrong you have to try again. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This a memory game designed to provide practice making eye contact, or “eye contact skills.” It is designed for use with children with special needs, specifically those with autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. You are shown a close-up view of a person, and a numeral is shown on their retina for a few seconds. You are then asked to type in the number, making this a memory game. By answering the correct number, you earn money. You can use the money you earn to buy things for your restaurant, creating a fun, accumulative play pattern. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Three classic nursery rhymes hide children’s voices and a chance to count, in this four screen children’s app. Content includes versions of “Little Miss Muffet”, “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”, all sung by children. Scene 1 covers words and spelling; Scene 2 – colors and numbers; Scene 3 – numbers and counting; and Scene 4 – two additional songs and drag & drop counting games. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a 28 screen rendition of the classic Danish folk tale, The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson, with illustrations by Lisbeth Zwerger. The story is about the tension between the mer-people and the land people, and how a young mermaid rescues and falls in love with a human prince. The pages can be narrated. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Learning to write letters and numerals will never be the same after a child tries LetterSchool on an iPad’s slippery screen. Content includes both uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as numbers from 1 to 10. You can toggle between three types of letters/numeral styles — D’Nealian (used in many US schools), HWT (Handwriting Without Tears) and Zaner-Bloser (the “traditional” format). You start with a set of letters (or numerals, if you have it set up in numeral mode). Each letter or numeral comes with three tracing games designed to introduce the name, sound, and the strokes required to learn it. In Tap, children find the “magic dot” at the beginning of the letter, tap it, and watch as the first part of the letter comes to life. (The letters and numbers might be displayed as grass, that you mow as you trace.) You can then tap the next dots shown at the end of each stroke to complete the next line… when finished you earn a star, and unlock the next game. Trace requires children to trace the letter correctly all the way to the end to earn a star and unlock the next challenge, Write. In this activity children must write the letter on their own without a helper line. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
La Forêt by Gallimard Jeunesse features clear, hand drawn, labeled illustrations, professional French narration, and a well designed table of contents. Features include 3D illustrations that respond to screen tilting, the ability to “paint” seasons with your finger, hidden animals and insects and realistic ambient sounds. Note, that there is no English language option. You can use this title to expose your child to a real immersive French experience. Illustrations are by René Mettler. Developed by Studio v2 for Gallimard Jeunesse. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This is a 32 screen rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk that follows the original story line, with audio narration, read-along text, and some interactive features. Created by Ayars Animation. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Part of the iWorldGeography series, this is a drill on country names, shapes, and locations. Children can touch a country to hear its name, or watch a movie with animated introductions. A quiz mode asks children to locate countries and a puzzle requires reconstruction of the map. There is a Labeling Lightbulb that can be touched to study or peek at control maps. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Play with a set of beautifully illustrated, zany monsters (on par with Moshi Monsters) in this Italian-language app. The narration is especially colorful, giving you a nice dose of the sound of a romantic language. A monster creation studio makes it possible to construct your own monster. Creations can be shared in an online gallery. Contents include 30 screens about a monster who is trying to be more scary, so he figures out that he can join a circus. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Turn your iPad into a vet’s office, with this collection of 24 short activities. The idea is to take care of six animals (two dogs, two cats, a parrot, and a cockatoo) by dragging and dropping bones back into place, clipping nails, combing hair, or catching fast-moving fleas. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Gube is a collection of over 500 pre-screened YouTube videos, each with no ads, and tagged by age. There’s no shortage of science, episodes of existing children’s programing like Sesame Street, and silly animals. Note that you’ll need a live Internet connection. The preferences let you filter the videos by age group (infant, toddler, pre-school, and grade school). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This app lets children take control of the “scary” monster and learn how to not be afraid of it. Each page progressively reveals and then removes each piece of the Big Green Monster by cleverly changing the background screen colors. Children can add the Monster’s eyes, hair, ears, and nose, and poke him to see what he does. There are four modes: Read Along with a Friend; Read Along with Ed; Sing Along; and Read Yourself. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This interactive earth science textbook app is organized in ebook fashion, with illustrations, photos, narrated animations, and slide shows, along with quizzes and review questions to test and reinforce understanding. Specific topics include the causes of earthquakes; the relationship between earthquakes and faults; earthquake waves; seismometers and earthquake detection; locating the source of an earthquake; measuring the size of earthquakes; earthquake damage and large historical quakes; tsunamis, firestorms, landslides, and liquefaction; earthquake prediction; and an in-depth discussion of the relationship between earthquakes and plate tectonics. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This app features hundreds of labeled photos to explore. The objects are sorted according to categories, including, animals, transport (this app was made in Australia, so there are some language differences), bodies, alphabets, numbers, shapes and colors. Each screen (or flashcard) contains one simple interactive feature, such as a sound. Second language packs are sold as in-app sales, for $1.99 each. These can be purchased in the preferences screen and include support for Spanish, French, German, Italian and English. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The arcade-style games in this app are based on the online game available at ZiggityZoom.com. There are three play mechanics, plus a Monster Creator-where you can customize and name up to five monsters, who stay in storage. You can grab and drag food from a conveyor belt, and drop them on your monster’s mouth to feed it. If you overfeed the monster, it will will explode. Other games include a food fight, and a food catching game. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a collection of matching and hide-and-seek games, based on farm animals. Each screen contains a simple matching activity. For example, a child might be asked to find a sheep (hiding behind a bale of hay) or move a porcupine to collect falling apples that are counted. There are 20 animals, each labeled with both print and verbal cues. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Available in Italian and created in Rome, this interactive storybook by illustrator Gioia Marchegiani pulls you inside the world of a little girl who dreams about birds. In some of the screens, you can draw your own bird. It is possible to toggle the background guitar music on/off, as well as the narration. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Created in Mexico, this story deals with a hard but necessary subject; death and dying (or coming and going). The conclusion, after about 14 watercolor and color collage screens … “it is so.” The content comes from a book by Paloma Valdiva. The book could create a context in which to discuss a difficult subject. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This make-your-own dream machine lets you mix and match artistic elements with a left or right swipe. With each motion, the “dream” changes, along with an accompanying three-sentence poem, presented and narrated in French. There is no English option. The app features the art of Stéphane Kiehl. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Twenty animated routines engage children in counting, from 1 to 20. The art is by Dutch illustrator Caroline Ellerbeck , who also published two Little Golden Books. Options let you switch between 16 languages (Arabic; Chinese; Dutch; French; German; Greek; Italian; Japanese; Lithuanian; Polish; Portuguese; Slovakian; Spanish; Swedish; Swiss German; and English). There is also a free lite version that lets you count to five. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This talking picture dictionary contains 1,700 words accompanied by pictures and spoken sentences. Children can swipe through the pictures, just exploring, or they can search by keyword. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This 24 screen app is adapted from a printed book by Rana DiOrio, illustrated by Chris Hill. The app addresses the question, “what does it mean to be global?” and gives you the idea that the world would be a better place, if we all thought globally. Features include on-the-fly toggling between Spanish and English, narrated sentences and limited animation on each screen. Other features include a coloring book, a journal where you can type your own sentences and drag and drop stickers onto a blank page, a set of lesson plans and a quiz. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Featuring a 3D spinning globe interface, this children’s atlas makes it possible to zoom in and pull out of a globe view, and to explore surface-level facts and photos on several hundred topics, including basic facts about each country. These facts can be compared with a touch (for example, for Mali) to learn the current time, weather, distance from you (the app knows where you are), and then compare land area, highest point, currency, transport per 1,000 people, and average CO2 emissions. Some of the items include 3D models, but this type of content seems scarce. The illustrations are by artist David Dean and the text narration is by the BBC’s Nick Crane. The 3D rotations of historical objects come from the Royal Geographical Society. The live country facts are supplied by Wolfram/Alpha and this includes real time weather, providing you’re online. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
This is a simple flash card app based on the Irish illustrator Chris Judge’s picture book, featuring The Lonely Beast. The 26 interactive hand-drawn scenes feature the Beast (a large, dark hairy creature with two eyes), and his friends as they explore each letter of the alphabet. The narration is provided by the author; music is by Simon Judge. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Based on an early rendition of the story, this app adapts an animation technique called scanimation to create the illusion of motion. This is done by moving vertical black and white lines against one another — one in the foreground, the other in the background. In the “Let Me Read” mode, you control the speed of the animation. No color is used, other than to highlight words as they are read. This app was created by Marmaduke Park and Umesh Shukla. Shukla is also the publisher. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
You can bring the world of Neverland to life, in your choice of language, with this rendition of Peter Pan. Pages can be changed by swiping, plus there is an easy-to-access table of contents. Both the on-screen text and audio narration can be toggled and examined, and children can have the story read to them, or read it on their own. Features of the enhanced HD version include: touch pronunciation, explain to me, show me, and Karaoke reading. Two versions of The Adventures of Peter Pan are available: an enhanced HD version for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch (USD $3.99), and a streamlined, non-interactive version for iPhone and iPod touch ($0.99). Designed by French publisher Chocolapps’ (formerly So Ouat!) this app contains 42 screens/pages of content. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating, and see why this received our Editor’s Choice Award.
Based on the book by Laurence Anholdt, this app layers two types of interactive activities onto the pages, along with some scaffolding features (narrated text, and touch-and-hear words). There are 30 screens, plus a 360 degree art gallery, where you can explore the ten photos featured in the book. And this, of course, includes those famous 15 sunflowers. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.