Children's Technology Review

YodelOh Math Mountain

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:19:34 +0000

Review Excerpt: This math drill that takes place in a carnival game. In order to win, you must correctly solve as many problems as possible before Hans the Hiker falls off the cliff. If you take too long to answer, or answer incorrectly, Hans takes one step up the hill. If you score a Backward Bonus, Hans takes a step back. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.

Type Defender

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:15:47 +0000

Review Excerpt: Nearly every typing tutorial has a game where you must stop approaching enemies by typing out the short words they carry. If you miss a word, the enemies score points, instead of you. This app brings the concept to thumb typing (or a regular keyboard if you have one). Your goal is to protect your honey and earn gold by spelling words, while defending your castle against puppies, radishes, octopuses, butterflies, and chameleons. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.

Turn And Learn

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:11:58 +0000

Review Excerpt: Turn and Learn is a smart flashcard app that makes it easy to practice basic vocabulary words in English, German, French, Italian and Russian. The screen is set up in a grid, not unlike a game of concentration. You see a picture, hear the pronunciation and read the text, and then touch the photo. The words are separated into thematic units and sets of words of 12 cards. Learning of each category involves 4 stages (5 in English). 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.

Trip, The – Little Critter Reading Adventure

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:08:00 +0000

Review Excerpt: In this Mercer Meyer story, you start with a choice of the classic “just read” and “reading adventure” modes. The story is a good one … a family of four decides to take a summer car trip to Lake Wakatookee. Along the way, they meet a horse in the road, get stuck in a traffic jam, stop at the beach, get the car fixed at a garage, get some ice cream and so on. The reading adventure mode presents hunt and find challenges in order to get to the next page. You can’t fix the car without a flashlight, for example, which might require going back to a previous page, in case you didn’t pick one up. During a stop at the beach, a seagull steals the car keys. The only way to get them back is to visit a roadside food stand and get some free popcorn. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.

Tale of a Snowflake, The

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:02:08 +0000

Review Excerpt: This eBook introduces children to the concept of the water cycle. In the story, a little girl captures a talking snowflake, who explains how she started as a drop of water in the ocean that evaporated and eventually turned into a snowflake. You can participate in some of the pages, by moving the sun around to cause the water to evaporate or shaking snowflakes from clouds. In addition, fact windows are presented, providing scientifically correct definitions of each key concept. 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.

StoryBots Tap & Sing

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:58:51 +0000

Review Excerpt: This is a living xylophone that has keys that can teach you songs. Each note on the two octave scale is represented by one of JibJab’s StoryBot characters. You can toggle between four voices. For the price of $free, you get three songs (Mary Had a Little Lamb, This Old Man and Row Row Row Your Boat). For more interesting songs, you need to subscribe for $4.99/month — sold as an in-app sale. 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.

Slice of Bread goes to the Beach

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:55:46 +0000

Review Excerpt: This 15 screen/page ebook tells the story of what happens when a slice of bread visits the beach. The animated effects support the story, which is written, narrated and illustrated by Australian Glenn Melenhorst, the author of Food Fight.Features include animated page turns, touch and hear text highlighting and a “read to me” mode, in case you want to just listen. Some pages have “micro” games — such as when you move the bread to avoid the seagull, or brush the bread crumbs to feed some ants. In the end, the slice of bread finds a friend. 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.

Seaworld Presents Turtle Trek

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:52:38 +0000

Review Excerpt: This app lets you steer a baby sea turtle through a five zone maze of danger, friends and treasure in order to meet some friends. As you explore, you collect coins and dodge sharks, coral and other dangers. The more bad things you run into, the faster your life runs out. On the other hand, finding food and treasures lets you swim longer, and find more facts about real sea animals. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.

Ruff’s Bone

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:47:32 +0000

Review Excerpt: This is an updated iPad edition of the classic Living Book. If you’re in your early 20s, you might recall the CD-ROM edition of the story. Ruff loves his “Sunday bone” but he can’t find it. Each of the 12 screens contains an exotic location. This includes a trip into a dark sky and a hunt on the moon to find it. His determined search leads us down a deep, dark hole, into a cave, high up into the clouds, to the bottom of the ocean and even up a ladder to another planet. The app is available in English and Spanish. 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.

Quigley the Caterpillar

Lisa — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:43:12 +0000

Review Excerpt: In the story, Quigley the caterpillar meets a beautiful butterfly named Bertina. Now Quigley sees himself as plain and wants to fly gracefully like Bertina and will do just about anything to be just like his new butterfly friend, until a wise old dragonfly named Eli teaches Quigley to trust that in time he will become everything he was created to be. Subscribers, please log into our database using your password to read the full review along with our rating.