What does the inside of a seashell look like? What about an insect, a motorcycle or an iPad? Here’s an app that lets you find out. The app contrasts two images — before x-ray and after x-ray, and every possible gradation between. To move between the views, you swipe with a single finger, from top to bottom. Content includes 26 everyday objects, arranged from A to Z. A double-tap offers a stereoscopic option, or you can pinch to zoom and reveal detail. This app is based on the photography of Hugh Turvey, the Artist in Residence at the British Institute of Radiology. The accompanying text is by author Paul Rosenthal. There are different versions, one for iPad, the other for iPhone or iPod Touch. 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.
Turn your slippery iPhone screen into a guitar fretboard with this Magic Guitar app with this follow-along style app that lets you mimic various guitar styles. You hold your phone like a guitar neck, and beams of light tell your finger where to go. A shake will bend the tone, and a swipe will give texture. The idea is to match the moving marks as closely as possible to earn points, which are recorded on a leaderboard. 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.
Slip your iPhone or iPod Touch inside this plush holder, and download a free app called Beary Happi. The result? You can turn your iPod Touch or iPhone into a teddy bear. There are ten modes hidden behind the parent options: HappiTaps, Toddler, Nighty Night, Story Time, Sing Along, Peek-a-Boo!, Feeding Time, Rattle & Fun, Sleep and Expressions. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Loud Crow Interactive and Peanuts Worldwide have partnered to produced a series of digital interactive books based on the cartoon specials. The first in the series, A Charlie Brown Christmas, features narration by Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown, along with original scenes and dialog from the 1965 animated classic, and digitally remastered illustrations, animation, and music optimized for your smartphone or tablet. See also “My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree,” a free add on designed to give you a taste of this app; that lets you decorate your own tree. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/my-charlie-brown-christmas/id484320301?mt=8 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 Bob Books app is based on the print editions of a popular workbook series (learn more at www.bobbooks.com). The app presents a step-by-step word-building experience, where the more letters you match, the more the picture fills in. Reading Magic 1 contains twelve scenes for 32 words, presented in four levels to provide increasing challenges to children as they play. Also available is Reading Magic 2, with 12 new scenes, different animations and 50 words. 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.
Toca Kitchen turns your iPad or iPhone into a virtual kitchen. You start by choosing from one of four characters to feed (a boy, girl, goat or cat). You then choose from 12 food items in the fridge by dragging and dropping the items on the plate. To feed your person, you touch the food and drag it near the mouth. They will either eat it, or refuse it. If it is the latter, you can visit the kitchen where you can cut it, blend it, boil it, fry it, or use a microwave. Each item can be made in many different ways. Each of the characters in the app have specific food preferences, and their reactions are dependent on how your prepare the food. They may refuse to eat certain foods, or they may start drooling even if the food is uncooked. 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.
Stretching the term “non-fiction,” The Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library is an ebook adaptation of the Dr. Seuss series, done in classic Oceanhouse Media style, where you can touch any item or word to see it labeled. You can also tap the stars on some of the pages to reveal constellations and see them identified. Other titles in the series will explore subjects including dinosaurs, pets, marine life and trees, each featuring classic characters from the original The Cat in the Hat series. 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.
As with other editions of Scribblenauts, children use language to unlock puzzles, by typing in the items they need. Need to kill a shark? Type “hair dryer” and drop it in the water, to electrocute it. Want to get through a gate? Type “shovel” and dig under it. Content includes 10 original levels designed specifically for Apple devices, along with 40 fan favorite levels from Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts. The more levels you solve, the more Starites you earn, and these unlock in-game achievements. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This app features two puzzle sets, each with nine puzzles that start easy (with six large pieces) and become more difficult. A hint system makes trial and error possible. The pirate is playful and it is hard to not complete a puzzle to see the ending. Preferences let you turn off the background music. 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.
Mix-and-match different heads, bodies and legs of animals, in order to make a match. To change a part, you swipe. As more characters are created, more surprises are revealed: kids can poke animals to hear them roar, chirp or tweet; balls bounce; and a lion helps keep count of his steaks. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
MadPad, the latest app from Smule (of Magic Piano and Ocarina fame), turns your camera equipped iPhone or iPad into a sound mix board. Instead of using existing songs and beats, it lets you capture everyday sounds, which can be easily recorded and played back or warped with a two finger swipe. To make your first sound collection, you touch “create” to divide the screen into 12 empty squares. Touch one of the squares and your microphone instantly starts listening. A feature called “SoundTrigger” grabs up to about 4 seconds of sound. To make a set you tap any box to start the recorder, or you can import sounds from the Smule server. 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.
Put a science center in your iPad, with this collection of three activities, featuring Sid the Science Kid characters. Following a noisy introduction — just like the show — you tap one of the three Sid characters to start a no-fail activity. In the Collection Inspection, you use a magnifying glass to notice subtle differences in 14 sets of items. Chart It presents seven collections, which vary by shape, color and pattern. You can move them onto dynamic charts. Wrong answers fall back to the bottom of the screen, giving the charts authenticity, and realtime feedback. Time Machine lets you play with time relationships as you freely explore 14 sets of objects such as an apple being eaten, a candle burning or a plant growing. Created by Jim Henson Studios and Carsten’s Studios for PBS Kids. 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.
Inspired by the 1963 book “Flat Stanley” by Jeff Brown and moved into the age of apps and Facebook by Dale Hubert, a Canadian elementary teacher, the Flat Stanley App is a free download that lets you superimpose a Flat Stanley cutout character over a photo taken with your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch camera. The idea is not unlike a message in a bottle. But instead of a bottle, your image captures your location, and you can type a little story about what Stanley is seeing. 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 part of a series of apps that feature a new Mom-Comm tracking mechanism, that lets you look over the should on what your child does using Facebook or email. Play Maker was created for Fingerprint by Krome studios. After you design a character by mixing and matching heads, bodies and legs, you can record a happy sound and sad sound. Next, you see your character filling the screen with letters attached to them. You are asked to match all the characters holding a number 9 card, and are told not to touch a robot with the wrong number or you’ll loose. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
One of the first ever math facts programs to use augmented reality, Lunch Rush provides an “out of device” experience. Here’s how it works. After you download the app, you must print out a set of cards from the Fetch Lunch Rush web site: http://pbskids.org/fetch/games/hollywood/lunchrush.html. There are nine cards; one per number. You lay the cards around a table (or room) and sign into the program. You’re then given a math problem, such as 14 – ? = 5. To enter the answer, you find the correct card (9) using the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch camera. This also causes a set of food items to appear over the numeral, superimposing computer graphics onto the real camera image. Content includes five rounds of addition or subtraction questions (three per round). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This app is designed to teach children the names of common colors using a hungry but friendly monster. There are 10 language options (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Japanese and Chinese). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This set of timed maze game challenges is embedded with multiple-choice problems. For example, in order to use a ladder to rescue a kitten, you must “find and tap the number ten” (from four possible numerals) or “find and tap something round” (from four shapes). This is one of the four new free FingerPrint apps created by former Leapfrog executive Nancy MacIntyre. Other titles in the series include Big Kid Life: Veterinarian; Big Kid Life: Fairy Princess; Fingerprint Play Maker; and DoReMi, 1-2-3. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is one of the four new free FingerPrint apps created by former Leapfrog executive Nancy MacIntyre. See also Big Kid Life: Firefighter. In this title, children are introduced to a story, step by step, and then are asked to remember the main events. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The contents of this app are based on 26 hand-engraved alphabet prints made by the famous German lithographer Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810-1896). There are three modes: Song, Spinner and Shuffle. The Song mode sings the classic alphabet song with period sound effects and animations. Spinner lets children spin the rattling wheel and test themselves on letters as they come up in random order. In Shuffle, children must reorder the jumbled alphabet by dragging and dropping each letter tile. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a narrated version of “The Ugly Duckling” presented Living Books style. There are 15 screens, each with about five hidden hot spots. Sometimes they are sequential. For example, you can press an egg several times before it will hatch. It is possible to record your voice on each page. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This app is designed to introduce children to parts of the body. There are three screens: Learn, Match and Compose. Learn lets children watch and listen; Match lets them listen to the song and choose the image that corresponds to the music; and Compose lets children compose their own song by selecting the pictures they would like to include in the song. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Drag-and-drop puzzles abound these days in the app store, but not many have animated pieces. The animated features bring a new type of timed problem solving to the challenge. For example, you can watch an animated part of the scene move, and use that as a clue to know the order in which the parts go. Songs include Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Oh Where Has My Dog Gone?, Down By the Bay, Itsy Bitsy Spider, You Are My Sunshine, Old MacDonald, This Old Man, I’m a Little Teapot, Twinkle Little Star, Yankee Doodle, Bach Minuet, Wheels on the Bus, London Bridge, Saints Go Marching, Boccherini Minuet, and Coming Around the Mountain. 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.
Puzzingo was inspired by classic wooden puzzles for kids. As children play with the puzzles, they learn what the different pieces are, as well as the different sounds they make. After they complete a puzzle, they are rewarded with minigames – including singing the ABC song, popping balloons, swatting flies, and more. In addition, once a puzzle is completed, children will unlock new puzzles to play. All the puzzles come together to build a circus ground. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Adapted directly from the printed Golden Book with the same title, by Janette Debring Lawrey, this is a 23 page, 12 screen ebook (two “pages” per screen). The story — of mischievous puppies getting into trouble — is supported nicely with good interaction, professional narration, and guided exploration on each page. The story is tried and true, and the springy illustrations wait quietly for a child’s touch. It is easy to jump to any page at any time, making this a solid addition to your ebook library. 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.
Here’s a fun way to put yourself into a book, and create a funny language experience. Note, that you’ll need a camera on your iPad (e.g., the iPad 2). Also note that there are both free and paid version pathways to these stories. This first title, called “The Biggest Pizza Ever,” tells the story of a kid who wreaks havoc on his town with a gigantic pizza pie. The book features simple character animations. Additional titles cost $8 each, or you can subscribe for $4/month. 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 second edition of Bartleby’s Book of Buttons contains 17 pages, each containing one or more puzzles that must be solved in order to unlock the next page. In the page labeled “Whale in the Way”, you must figure out how to get a sleeping whale to wake up, in order to see the door to a hidden cave. This requires playing records on Bartleby’s phonograph (spun with your finger). If you pick the right record (street noises) long enough, the whale wakes up. Other screens have you tilting the screen to steer a bubble and shining a spotlight on various points on the screen. 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.
Dressed in bright orange and white colors (to make sure it doesn’t get confused with a real gun), this is a plastic gun that houses your camera-equipped iPod Touch, iPhone 3 or greater in a plastic case that snaps onto a gun barrel, about where the sight would be. So instead of looking down the barrel, you look into your iPhone screen. The first step is to download one of the apps. We tried AlienAttack, a game that plays exactly like many Nintendo DSi and 3DS games, where you see creatures floating around your room as seen through the camera on your device. A radar screen clues you into the creature location — the more you shoot, the harder the challenge. There are just two buttons on the app, one for each trigger. When you pull the trigger, the capacitive energy from your finger is passed to the screen, through a little plastic pad that presses against your screen. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This letter recognition app is designed to introduce and teach letters in Spanish, based on the Montessori methodology. After each letter is introduced, children can practice writing each letter, one at a time, in upper or lower case by following the prescribed path. If you stay inside the line, you are praised in Spanish. The app is available in Spanish and Catalan. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
The idea behind this alphabet app is to teach children to read and write the alphabet, one letter at a time. Activities include picking the right letter to fill in the blank to complete a word, singing along with the alphabet song as they pop each bubble to reveal a hidden creature, and tracing letters. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Based on the printed book “When I Grow Up” by Al Yankovic with illustrations by Wes Hargis, this 18 screen book deals with the age-old question “what will I be when I grow up.” In this case, the question is answered by the author, “Weird Al” Yankovic, the famous wisecracking comedian/musician. Note that the app was initially released as a book but has since been enhanced with five story-related games. For example, in Haute Cuisine Hero you’re a cook who is supposed to tap an ingredient when it is above a pot of stew. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This is a peaceful story set to the theme of the night, stars (that twinkle) and owls. There are three modes: Read to me, Read myself, and Auto play. You can touch the screen to launch animated events, such as making the owl’s wings flap, or making the owl blink. There is also a counting game where you touch stars (up to 20) to hear them labeled. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Eight timed games give young children a chance to play with firehouse themes. Games include Firetruck Traffic (help the firefighters get to the fire while avoiding other cars by tapping on the screen); In The Trees (tilt the screen to guide a firefighter into the trees to rescue pets); Put Out the Fire (spray water on burning windows); Safety Net (guide a net to catch jumping animals); Find & Rescue (a hard to control maze game); Helicopter Drop (a confusing game where you drop water out of a fire helicopter onto flames) and Firefighter Gear (a confusing matching game). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Mercer Mayer’s rendition of the classic folk tale comes to your iPad. As you know, this fairy tale has a dark theme. Mayer deals with that by turning the wolf into a frustrated Shakespearian actor who simply ties up Grandma instead of eating her. When it comes time to eat Little Red Riding Hood, she’s able to hide while the woodcutter chases the wolf away. There are two word search games. The more you read or play, the more coins you collect, although there’s no real connection between the coins and the story. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Lego Life of George lets you test your pattern matching skills under the pressure of a stop watch, providing you have a camera equipped iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad 2, and have downloaded a free app called Life of George from iTunes (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grNO42UK5q8). The app serves as your blueprint, timer, progress tracker, and — most interestingly — your judge. The $30 kit contains the basic supplies — 144 Legos and a special cardboard grid that serves as a backdrop, allowing your camera to “see” your work, using special software called EyeCue (see www.eyecue-tech.com). In addition to Game Mode which can be played alone or against one competitor in a pass-and-play format, it is possible to design and capture your own models to be saved in a scrap book. 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.
In this app, your job is to run a helicopter taxi that picks up different characters that need to get to certain places. Your kids can fly the helicopter by walking around the room, and rotate the iPhone to see all different angles as well as turn it upright to see the pilots Rita and Skip. When your kids get a call from someone who needs a ride, they place the iPhone on any flat surface to land and pick up new passengers. The app features five characters including Señor Fox, Minda, Rooster, T-Bot and Dr. Clifton, and five locations to bring them too. 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 farm-related interactive sticker book lets you touch and hear items and add your own stickers, which can be arranged on the screen. Content includes 500 pieces of art on 20 pages, including a sticker drawer that lets you drag and drop different items on the page. Each scene can be toggled between day and night (just touch the sun or the moon). Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This well intentioned app looks good, but it is (at times) painfully didactic. It combines matching games with a playful Winnie the Pooh story; proof that some things don’t mix particularly well. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
Disney’s virtual world for kids, Club Penguin, is reaching into your mobile device with this game built around a series of cannons that float in the air. The cannons shoot a ball-shaped Puffle (the furry pets from the Club Penguin virtual worlds) through a course full of moving hazards. To make it through, you steer your puffles from cannon to cannon by touching the screen. As the Puffles float, they bounce off balloons. The better you do, the more levels you unlock. The challenges are arranged in 24 levels that can be unlocked. 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 animated stickerbook app features four scenes: Drag Race, Classic Roadster, Monster Car, and Junkyard Car builder. You tap and hold a sticker of a car-related item, such as a tire, then drag it into the scene. You can then resize it. To remove a sticker, just drag it off the screen. At any point, you can select a “play” button to animate the stickers, e.g., to make the cars start moving across the screen. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.
This 15 page/screen ebook lets you customize one of the cars (from the movie) with pre-made patterns and a spoiler. You then can enter a race which is held on one of three tracks, at the end of the story. Features include the ability to toggle between English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Swedish. All text is highlighted as it is read. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.