Over the last few weeks Bryn has been playing on 3 ebook apps for the iPad all have been very succesful in keeping him entertained & enthralled.

Goodnight by Sandra Boynton – this has the same text as the print book but with lots of interactive elements. The book & subsequently the app I think are probably too young for Bryn in terms of content, simple text & story. It does however include lovely features such as turning the tap on a page so the screen looks like it’s steamed up. I think this is a great use of the tablet & helps make the book more immersive.

Goodnight Book

Three Little Pigs by Nosy Crow – this app is a complete delight with its quirky & engaging illustrations & characters. The pigs & wolf are developed enough to provide some real personality to the story. So far out of the three apps this has been the most successful in terms keeping Bryn entertained for a time. One if his favourite interactive elements is blowing in the mic to make the wolf blow the house down – the downside is that he often doesn’t have enough puff or is not positioning himself over the microphone effectively enough. As it’s such a well established story for Bryn he is really comfortable navigating through it which allows him to engage with the interactive elements without it detracting from the story. I also think he likes the control over the characters, in terms of choosing when they speak. One day while playing with this app he declared he would like to pick up the wolf & throw him out of the story – what a different tale that would be.

Three Little Pigs

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore – this app is where film meets book. It has stunningly beautiful animation and some very intelligent charming interactive features. One of Bryn’s favourite pages is touching the grey sky to turns blue – while playing this in the car during a long drive through the rain we both would have loved the chance to paint the real sky blue. One of my favourite pages is when 3 of the characters in the story change to reflect the book they are given, I just wish there were more titles. I really enjoy this app as I love the animation and that it is centered around books, stories and characters. It is however a little buggy and a some of the interaction is currently a little too subtle for Bryn, but something I think he will grow into to.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore

In general using these book apps with Bryn reminds me of reading ‘lift the flap’ type books, as often Bryn is keen to pull, lift etc on the page and this distracts from the story however it does not detract from his love of books. While he enjoys this level of distraction he also equally enjoys having print books and stories read to him. I think there is a real value in having so many routes to exploring stories, characters, themes etc. I also think there is much more to come with feature rich ebooks and we definately have room for both print and online books in our home.